Don't Think, Just Do It: Year 5
by I am the Girl Who Lived
Summary: The 5th instalment of the Don't Think Just Do It Series: With Voldemort back,and Dolores Umbridge snooping around Hogwarts, the gangs fifth year at Hogwarts is going to be even more challenging than before. With Harry getting visions about Voldemort, Max suffering endless nightmares and panic attacks how will any of them get through the year in one piece?Not good at summaries, R&R!
1. Chapter 1

_**AUTHORS NOTE! :P**_

_**Hey everyone, and welcome to Don't Think Just Do It: Year 5. **_

_**Order of the Phoenix is probably my favourite book, so I'm really excited about this :)**_

_**I want to thank everyone who reviewed on the last 4 stories, and know that it's because all of you that I'm still writing these stories.**_

_**I'm gonna kinda take the first page of School's Out Forever for the first few paragraphs of this chapter, because I loved the start of that one :)**_

_**Oh, and I can't remember if I ever mentioned Total being able to speak before in Year 4, so if I have, let's just pretend I didn't. **_

_**Now, on with the story, and enjoy Year 5!**_

_**-Rach ;)**_

* * *

_**Max's POV **_

Soaring, sweeping, swooping, and gliding through the air- there was nothing better. For the first time since term ended, I felt like I could relax. For miles around, we were the only things in the wide-open, clear blue sky of the countryside around the small village Ottery St. Catchpole. We kept tucking our wings in, dive-bombing for a mile straight down, then _whoosh! _Wings back out, grab an air current, and hang on for the ride of your life. Nothing is more better, more fun, or more exciting.

Okay, fair enough, the six of us were mutant freaks with magical powers, but flying- it was even better without a broomstick- well, there's a reason people always dream about it.

"Oh Merlin!" the Gasman exclaimed, pointing. "A UFO!"

I counted to ten silently. There was nothing where the Gasman had pointed. Just like the previous hundred times. "That was funny the first fifty times, Gazzy," I said. "It's getting old. Think of another joke."

He cackled happily, several wingspans away from me. There's nothing like a nine year old's sense of humour.

Here's the deal, for anyone new on this trip. There are six of us; Angel, who's seven; Gasman, age nine; Iggy who is fourteen; Nudge is twelve; Fang and me are both fourteen as well. We escaped from the lab where we were raised, were given wings, and other assorted powers. Over the last few years, Angel has been secretly practising her mind reading powers, and she could now read anyone's mind when she focused enough. And even though it wasn't really that powerful yet, she could also control minds too. Of course, I've forbidden her from reading any of our thoughts, or the Weasley's, unless it was absolutely necessary.

The Gasman, Angel's biological brother, could mimic any sound he wanted to. He often used his power to say something insulting in someone else's voice, and laughing manically at everyone's reactions. Nudge, on the other hand, has the power to attract anything metal towards her at will. It was quite handy for when we had to set the table, as we weren't allowed use magic outside school. She can also feel the left over emotions when she touches something that has generated great sadness, or another strong emotion. Nudge told us about it after we came back to the Burrow. She told us that she had accidentally touched one of the suits of armour in the school a few days before term ended. Apparently, that suit of armour was a popular place for bad breakups.

Fang can become invisible when he stays still long enough, so he has to constantly remind himself to move slightly at school so no one see's him just disappearing. When Iggy was blind, his other senses were always so much better than ours. He could also tell the colour of things when he touched them, and identify the flock by touching our finger tips, or our wings. Whether he still can do these things, now that he has his eyesight back, I don't know.

Then there's me. I have a Voice in my head that sometimes tries to guide me and tell me what to do, but mostly I just ignore it.

See, a year after we escaped with one of the whitecoats, Jeb Batchelder, a man showed up at our house in the Colorado mountains, called Albus Dumbledore. He told us that the entire flock were magical, all witches and wizards. So that September, me, Fang and Iggy went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. That's where we met our best friends, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. That winter, Jeb was murdered, and so the Weasley's became our guardians.

That year was the first time I ever met Lord Voldemort. Voldemort was one of the darkest and most evil wizard to ever live. When Harry was a baby, Voldemort went to his house and killed his parents, then tried to killed Harry, but he couldn't. Voldemort was destroyed and Harry became famous.

But Voldemort hadn't been completely stopped. When we were eleven, Voldemort was possessing one of our teachers, Professor Quirrell. At the end of our first year, we fought against him, and stopped him from taking the Philosophers Stone.

Then, in our second year, I found an old diary in my room and started writing in it. Only thing was, it started writing back. Turns out that the diary belonged to Tom Riddle, which was Voldemort's real name. He was possessing me through that diary, making me open the Chamber of Secrets and releash the monster inside, a Basilisk, which petrified Muggle-Borns, including Hermione and Iggy. At the end of the year, I was forced to go into the Chamber myself. Riddle was planning on draining my life so he could come back to life. Harry, along with the boys, managed to save me and he killed the Basilisk and destroyed the diary.

Then, last summer, I found out that I had a father. Sirius Black, who had been in Azkaban for twelve years for a crime he didn't commit, was my father. He was engaged to my mother, Grace Collins, when I was born and taken away to the School. A while later, my mother was murdered by Voldemort. To save him from the Dementors, we nearly got our souls sucked from our bodies, and me and Harry both produced a full Patronus.

Last week was easily the worst of it all. The Triwizard Tournament was at Hogwarts this year, and Harry was entered into it. During the Third Task, me and Harry were taken off to a graveyard and watched as Lord Voldemort came back to a full and powerful body. And we watched as Cedric Diggory was murdered. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I was getting nightmares nearly every night.

Suddenly, I felt a rush of heat flooding through me, washing my face with fire. I started breathing fast, the adrenaline making my heart pound fast and hard in my heart.

The next thing I knew, I was streaking into the sky like a rocket, my blonde hair streaming behind me, wind stinging my eyes. I was going so incredibly fast, but I could hardly feel my wings moving. _Oh God, what the hell am I doing? What is this? _

Normally, the flock and I could keep up a steady pace of eighty miles an hour without much effort, and we could sprint at a hundred and twenty. When we dive-bombed, we'd hit speeds of a hundred and eighty.

I was going way faster than that now, by myself.

It was totally _awesome. _

A giddy happiness and excitement rose up in me, but my laugh was snatched away by the wing. Eventually, I felt myself slowing down. I wasn't even breathing hard. Laughing again, I turned back and headed back towards the Burrow. I figured that I'd gone back about... _holy crap, I'd gone thirty miles. _

The flock were still where I left them. I slowed down and coasted towards them. Five faces turned towards me, looking stunned and amazed. Well, six if you can count Total, who was in Angel's arms.

Gazzy was the first to speak. "You have warp drive!" he said faintly.

"I want to ride with _you," _a new, unfamiliar voice said. I stared at the dog in Angel's arms.

"Did you just talk?" I gasped. Total didn't say anything.

"Angel? Can the dog talk?" I demanded.

"Hey! I can speak for myself! And I find that insulting!" Total said.

"I was going to tell you, Max... but with everything that happened, I just didn't know how," Angel said.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead. "It's okay, Angel. Just don't keep stuff like that from us again, okay? And you-" I said, pointing to the dog, "keep the chatting to a minimum."

Total scoffed, but didn't say anything else. For now.

So now, we're six mutant freaks with magical powers, and a bloody talking dog.

"Max? What did you just do? I mean, you just blasted away, so fast! You were like a plane! And in about twenty seconds, we couldn't even see you anymore! I mean that was awesome-"

"I think I developed a new skill," I said, grinning happily. "Come on. Let's go back to the Burrow. Mrs Weasley might have something for us to eat."

Just over five minutes later, we were in the front garden of the Burrow. Laughing and feeling happier than I've felt in days, I opened the door and walking into the kitchen, only to stop dead in my tracks.

The kitchen was full. All of the Weasley's (except Percy, Bill and Charlie, even though Bill was back in the country working in Gringotts) were in the kitchen, and so was-

"Professor Lupin!" I said, smiling even wider at the sight of my godfather. "What are you doing here? Is Sirius with you?"

"Hi, Max," Lupin said. Though he was still young, Lupin looked tired and ill; he had more grey hairs than when I last said goodbye to him and his robes were more patched and shabbier than ever. Nevertheless, he was still smiling broadly at the sight of me and the flock. "Fang, Iggy, Nudge," he said, smiling at all of them. Then he walked over to us and grinned at Gasman and Angel. "And you two must be Gazzy and Angel. I'm Remus Lupin, it's nice to meet you."

He shook their hands, then turned back to me. "To answer your earlier questions, no Sirius is not with me, and if you'll all just gather around here, I'll explain why I'm here."

Judging from the confused and curious expressions on the others faces, Lupin didn't explain anything to them either. I sat down on the couch between Fang and George, and Fred sat on the ground in front of us.

When everyone was gathered around, Lupin stood in front of the fireplace. "I'm here on Dumbledore's orders. He believes that with everything that's happened, the Burrow just isn't safe enough for you all at the moment- especially the flock, and Ron. He believes that if Voldemort is to make a move against Harry, he will use someone that Harry is close to, and have Harry try and save them. Just like with Max and the Chamber of Secrets. So Dumbledore would like you all to be moved someone a lot more safe."

"Where?" Ginny asked.

Lupin grimaced. "I can't exactly tell you that, I'm afraid. You're just going to have to trust me on this, and Dumbledore. He knows what he's doing. But he wants you to know that this will only be temporary. Perhaps a year, or so. And besides, the kids are going to Hogwarts in September."

Mr Weasley rose to his feet. "Of course we trust you Remus. And Dumbledore as well. But what about the house? My job?"

"The wards and spells around the house will stay put, and you will go to work as normal, Arthur. You're all free to come and go from this house, but no one is to come alone, or stay for over an hour. The chickens will be given to Molly's aunt, Muriel, so you don't have to worry about them. She's agreed to feed them and all that, and not to cook them, which she threatened to do when we first asked her to take them..."

Mr and Mrs Weasley shared at worried look. "If it's safer for the children then I suppose we must do it," Mrs Weasley said at last.

Mr Weasley nodded. He looked towards Lupin. "Are we meant to leave tonight?"

Lupin nodded. "It would be best."

Mr Weasley nodded, and said, "All right then. You heard him kids, go up and pack. Not too much though, just the clothes you need, and some books or toys."

"I must go, Arthur, and inform them you're coming. I'll leave a Portkey here and it will bring you to the right place," Lupin said, then he looked at us. "I'll see you all later tonight, okay?"

I stood up and smiled at Lupin, then motioned for the flock to follow me upstairs. We crowded on the landing outside my room.

"All right, guys," I said. "I have no idea where we're going, but we can trust Lupin and Dumbledore. Hopefully this way, we'll learn what's going on with Voldemort."

They all nodded. "Good. Now, go pack. Don't worry about leaving things here, you heard what Lupin said. We'll be coming back soon," I added, looking at Nudge, knowing she'd just try and pack as many clothes as she could into her trunk.

They left my room, and I started to get my clothes packed into my trunk. When my favourite jeans, shirts, jumpers and jackets were packed away in the trunk, including my Hogwarts uniform, I went around my room and gathered up my favourite books, my broomstick, the few pieces of jewellery I owned, and the stack of photos that Sirius gave me of himself and my mother, and in a few of them, they were with Harry's parents, and Lupin. I put the pictures carefully into my trunk, and then put the other stuff in there too. I put Freedom into his cage, got his owl treats, then started down the stairs with the cage and my trunk.

When I got onto the landing, I heard loud shouting from down in the kitchen. I rolled my eyes, thinking that Mrs Weasley had just found one of Fred and George's new joke products. But when I finally dragged my trunk downstairs, I realised that it wasn't Fred and George being shouted at. It wasn't even Mrs Weasley doing the shouting.

I got into the kitchen and saw Mr Weasley and Percy by the back door, both red in the face and shouting at each other. Everyone else was already in the kitchen with their bags and trunks, and Mrs Weasley was in tears.

"Use your head, Percy! You've only been out of Hogwarts a year, and don't even try to pretend that you didn't get into trouble over what happened with Crouch! You know as well as anyone that Fudge is checking that nobody in the Ministry has any contact with Dumbledore. He's promoted you into his office so he can get you to spy on the family, and Dumbledore!"

My eyes widened. I've never heard Mr Weasley that angry.

But Percy was ten time worse.

"You are just jealous that I'm becoming more successful than you have ever been! I'm only eighteen, and yet I've already been promoted to Junior Assistant to the Minister, and you are still stuck in the same tiny office! Ever since I've joined the Ministry, I've been struggling against your terrible reputation, but not any more. You want to know the real reason why we have always been so poor? Because you have no ambition! You're the reason we've never had much money! But you don't care, just as long as you can still be around all that stupid Muggle rubbish!"

"Now, Percy, you listen here-"

"You are such a fool to be running around with Dumbledore, to be agreeing with him about all this You-Know-Who rubbish." When Percy said this, he looked at me and glared at me. I made a not so polite hand gesture in return. "Dumbledore is heading for big trouble, and you will be doing down with him! I know where my loyalties lie! With the Ministry!"

"No, Percy. You're loyalties lie with your family! I've always told you that, that family always comes first, no matter what!" Mr Weasley yelled.

"If you and Mother are going to become traitors to the Ministry, then I shall make it very clear that I am not apart of this family any more!" Percy shouted.

"Percy, just shut your mouth for once in your life! You have to know that Fudge is being crazy. Voldemort is back, Percy," I said, ignoring the Weasley's when they winced, "Me and Harry saw him, and Dumbldore agrees with us. You should know that your parents wouldn't risk all this if he wasn't back. Use that oversized head of yours, Percy, and stop being an asshat."

"Yes, well," Percy said, "The only evidence that You-Know-Who is back, is your word, and Harry Potter's. And obviously, the word of two attention-seeking teenagers is not enough-"

"Attention-seeking teenagers?! That's rich, coming from you, Mr I'm-so-freaking-smart-and-so-perfect. Why don't you just take your head out of your ass and realise what is happening around you-"

"That's enough, Max. This is between me and Percy," Mr Weasley said.

"No, it isn't. I'm done," Percy said, then he moved past Mr Weasley and rushed up the stairs, as if he thought someone would stop him. We all stood in the sitting room or kitchen in silence, taking in what just happened.

"Do you really thing Fudge only promoted Percy to spy on us?" Ginny asked her father quietly.

Mr Weasley nodded. "This past week, Fudge has been making it clear that anyone in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks. I just never thought he'd do something like this."

Just then, Percy came back down stairs, dressed in his travelling cloak, and with his bags down by his feet. "I'm leaving," he stated.

"We can see that," Iggy snarled.

"I'm leaving and going to live in London. I want nothing to do with this family if you're loyalties lie with attention-seeking teenagers and power-hungry men. Goodbye," he said, then he picked up his bags, and left through the back door.

Mrs Weasley let out a loud sob, then raced out into the garden after him. We could hear her shouting his name, pleading with him to come back, but after a few minutes, we heard the loud `pop' of Percy Disappartating.

It took another few minutes for Mrs Weasley to come back inside the house. When she did, her eyes were red and puffy, and there was tear marks on her cheeks. "H-he's g-gone," she sobbed hysterically. "G-got pa-passed the w-wards, a-and D-Disapparated."

I felt rage surge through me. How could Percy just leave his family? How could he be so disloyal, after everything that's happened?

Mr Weasley went over to her and pulled her into a hug. It took her nearly ten minutes to calm down, and when she did, Mr Weasley turned to us and said, "Right, get your trunks and bags. We'll take the Portkey when everyone's ready."

It took a few minutes for everyone to gather themselves, and when everyone was ready, Mr Weasley picked up an old football that Lupin left behind for the Portkey.

"Everyone ready?" he asked.

We all nodded, and Mrs Weasley was still sniffling and wiping tears away from her eyes.

"_Portus!__" _Mr Weasley said, pointing his wand at the football. A blue light engulfed the football, and Mr Weasley said, "Quick! We've got a few seconds before it goes!"

We all gathered around, and somehow, the twelve (thirteen if you count Total, the magical talking dog) of us managed to get a finger each on the football. I held on tight with my other hand on my trunk and Freedom's cage, with my school bag draped over my back.

Suddenly, I felt a strong jerk behind my naval, and I was jerked forward. I could feel everyone crowded around me, banging into me; it was all just a howl of colour and noise and wind. My feet slammed into the ground; Gazzy tripped over me and fell to the floor.

I looked up and saw that we were crowded in a dark, narrow hallway. I was able to smell damp, dust, and a sweetish, rotting smell; the entire place had the feeling of a derelict, abandoned building.

I heard voices from in front of us, and lights appeared in the hallway. I looked up to see two people walking very quietly towards us. The first person that can't into sight was...

"Professor Moody?" I said uncertainly.

"Don't know why you're calling me Professor," Mad-Eye Moody growled, "seeing as I never actually taught a single class."

But I had very good reason to be suspicious. We had all recently spent the last school year with someone we thought to be Moody, only to find out that it wasn't Moody at all, just an imposter; an imposter that tried to kill me and Harry. But before I could say something about it, a voice came from behind him.

"Good, you're here already," Lupin said quietly. "If you'll just follow us into the kitchen, quietly, we'll explain everything in there."

Nudge opened her mouth to speak, but Lupin shushed her. "When I say quietly, I mean quietly. Actually, it would be best if you all tip-toed down the hall."

I frowned. "But why-?"

"Quiet Miss Ride!" Moody growled.

We started tip-toeing down the hall, passing a pair of long, moth-eaten curtains, which I supposed covered another door, and a large umbrella stand that looked as though it was made from a severed troll's leg. As we passed the dark staircase, I saw a row of shrunken heads mounted on the wall as plaques. Looking closer, I saw that all the heads belonged to house-elves.

My bewilderment only grew with every step we took. Why were we in a house that looked as though it belonged to Dark Wizards?

_CRASH!_

I spun around, and saw Nudge sprawled out on the ground, with the troll umbrella stand knocked over. Looks like she tripped over it.

"Sorry," she apologised, cringing. "I was looking around, I didn't notice it. I hope I didn't break or damage it-"

But the rest of her apology was drowned out by a horrible, ear-splitting, blood-curdling screech.

The moth-eaten curtains we had passed earlier had flown apart, but there wasn't a door there. Instead, it was a life-size portrait of an old woman in a black cap who was screaming and screaming as if she was being tortured. The old woman was drooling, her eyes were rolling, the yellowing skin of her face as she screamed and screeched; and as she screamed, all of the other portraits on the wall awoke and began to yell too, so loud that we all actually screwed up our eyes and clapped our hands over our ears.

Lupin and Moody rushed forward, ignoring the loud questions being asked by Mr and Mrs Weasley, and tried to tug the curtains closed around the portrait, but it wouldn't close and the old woman just screeched louder and louder, waving her clawed hands around as if she tried to claw at their faces.

"Filth! Mutants! Scum! Blood-traitors! By-products of dirt and vileness! Half-breeds and Mudbloods! Freaks and abominations, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers-"

Nudge apologised over and over again, picking the troll's leg up. Moody abandoned the attempt to close the curtains, and just went around Stunning the other portraits until they stopped screaming.

A man with long black hair came charging out of the door that was directly in front of us.

"For the last time, you hag, shut up!" he yelled, seizing the curtains that Moody had abandoned.

The old woman's face blanched.

"Yoooooou!" she bellowed, her eyes popping at the sight of the man. "Blood-traitor, shame of my own flesh, freak!"

"I told you to SHUT UP!" the man roared. With a huge effort, himself and Lupin managed to force the curtains closed again.

The old woman's screeches died, and silence finally fell. Panting slightly, and sweeping his long hair from his grey eyes, my father Sirius Black turned to face me and the others.

"Hello Max," Sirius said, smiling at me before nodding and smiling at the others, "I see you've met my mother."

"Your-?"

"My dear old mum, yeah," Sirius said. "We've been trying to get her down for about a month, but we think she put a Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of the portrait. Let's get downstairs, then, before they all wake up then."

My mouth dropped. "Are you telling me that was my grandmother?" I asked.

Sirius nodded. "Trust me, you're better off not knowing your grandmother. Much better off. Now, come on. Dinner is ready downstairs."

Ad we walked, I stepped froward so me and Sirius were walking side by side, with the others just behind us. "But why is there a portrait of your mother here?" Iggy asked as we went through the door from the hall and led the way down a narrow flight of stone steps.

"Hasn't anyone told you? This used to be my parents' house," Sirius said. "But seeing as me and Max are the only Black's left, the house is mine. I offered it to Dumbledore for Headquarters- the only useful thing I've been able to do."

"Headquarters for what?" I asked.

"No one's told you about that either?" Sirius said. He looked to Lupin who was walking in front of him. "Blimey, Remus, did you tell them anything?"

"I told them enough, Sirius. We'll explain everything during dinner," Lupin said.

It was then that I noticed how bitter Sirius was. To be honest, I had been expected a warmer welcome to that. I followed Sirius to the bottom of the steps and through a door into the basement kitchen.

It was slightly less gloomy than the rest of the house, a cavernous room with rough stone walls. The light was mostly coming from the large fire at the end of the room. There were loads of chairs crammed around the large wooden table, which was littered with rolls of parchment, goblets, and a heap of rags.

There were a group of people sitting around the table that I'd never seen before. Mr and Mrs Weasley stepped in front of all of us.

"Can someone tell us where we are now?" Mr Weasley asked.

"This is the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," Sirius explained.

Mr Weasley's eyes widened with understanding, but Mrs Weasley's eyes just narrowed in anger. "And why, pray tell, are we here?"

Sirius ran his fingers through his dark hair. "Dumbledore thought this place would be safest for you. We all know that you and Arthur weren't member's originally, but he wanted you all to stay here, and maybe recruit you. But I'll leave that to him to discuss with you. He should be here later."

"What's the Order of the Phoenix?" Fang said.

"It's a secret society," said a bald, black wizard from the group of people sitting at the table. He had a deep, slow voice and had a single gold hoop in his ear. "It was first founded by Dumbledore back when Voldemort first came to power. It's members are all people who have fought and are prepared to fight against him and his Death Eaters."

I frowned at him, and the others in the group at the bottom of the table.

"Introductions, I think," Lupin said. "Everyone, this is Kingsley Shacklebolt," he said, indicating to the black wizard, "Nymphadora Tonks," he pointed to a very young witch, about in her early twenties, with a pale, heart-shaped face, dark twinkling eyes, and bubble-gum pink hair.

"You should know better, Remus," she said, grinning. "You can all call me Tonks. It's a lot better than Nymphadora."

I grinned back at her. She seemed pretty cool.

"That's Elphias Doge," Lupin continued, indicating to a silver-haired man sitting beside Tonks.

"Dedalus Diggle," a man in a violet top hat introduced himself.

"I'm Emmeline Vance," said a witch who looked to be around the same age as Sirius. "And that's Sturgis Podmore." A square-jawed wizard with straw-coloured hair nodded his head. "And Hestia Jones." A pink-cheeked, black-haired witch waved happily from beside the fireplace.

"Please tell me there are more people than this in the Order thing," I said, looking at the people gathered around the kitchen.

"Of course there is, girl," Moody growled. "We have more than twenty members that you will probably meet, and then even twice as much that you will never even need to know about."

"So what's all this about?" George asked, walking closer to the table to get a look at the parchments while Mr and Mrs Weasley were talkign with Lupin and Kingsley. But before any of us could get the good look at what was on the parchments, Moody made them all roll up. "_Evanesce,_" he said, and the scrolls vanished. "That," he said, "is all secret Order business. The deal is that anyone living in this house under the age of seventeen, or still in school, will not be allowed join the Order, be present at the meetings, and no member can openly discuss the business with them. Is that understood?"

He gave us all a long, hard look until we nodded. Even his magical eye that could see through doors and walls were focused on us.

"Is there anything we're allowed know?" I asked. "Like, does anyone know what Voldemort is doing, where he is? What his plans are?"

"You are under age, Ride," Moody growled. "Can't tell you what's going on. Dumbledore's orders."

"Dumbledore's ordered you all not to tell me anything?" I snapped. "Why?"

"Not just you, Max," Lupin said. "All of you. You're all under seventeen."

"We're not," Fred said.

"Yeah, we turned seventeen months ago," George said.

"Yes, but you're still in school."

"What does it matter what age we are?" I said. "We deserve to know what's going on. Or do you all forget who it was that actually faced Voldemort only a week ago?" Sirius winced, but I ignored it. If he wasn't even going to hug his own daughter, let him wince a little.

"Dumbledore doesn't wanting you- any of you- knowing more than you need to," Sirius said calmly, but I still heard the bitterness in his voice.

"So you're not going to tell us anything?" I said.

"Right now, there's nothing you need to know. To be honest, everything's been quiet. A few fights and fires, about two or three missing people that we aren't even sure has any connection to Voldemort or the Death Eaters, and that's about it for now. It's been quiet," Lupin said.

"So what's the Order been doing?" Mr Weasley asked.

"Mainly recruiting members for when something does happen, and we believe when something does happen, it will be bad. So we're getting as many people as we can, and planning for when everything goes bad," Kingsley said. "We have our own spies in the Ministry, keeping tabs on all the convicted Death Eaters from last time, and also on all the names that Mr Potter and Miss Ride gave us that night," he finished, nodding to me.

"And you want me and Molly as members?" Mr Weasley said.

"Dumbledore wants you in the Order, yes. But whether or not he'll have specific jobs for you, like he does for certain people, we don't know. He'll have to talk to you about it all himself."

Mr Weasley seemed to think about something for a minute. Then he looked at Mrs Weasley, and when she nodded, Mr Weasley said, "We'll do anything we can to help."

Moody grunted. "That's bloody brilliant. Now can we all sit down and eat? I'm ruddy starving."

* * *

After eating a delicious meal cooked by Mrs Weasley, we were all feeling tired. After Angel yawned for the fiftieth time, Sirius stood up and said, "Come on, then, I'll show you all to your rooms."

Yawning, I bid all the adults goodnight, and the others following my lead. We followed Sirius up the stairs. We reached the second floor, and Sirius pointed to a door. "In there, that's Ron, Iggy, and Fang's room. Harry will be in there too, if he comes here this summer. But," he added, as I opened my mouth, "we don't know if he will be or not. You two," he said, pointing to the twins, "Will be upstairs."

"Angel, Nudge and Ginny will be in there," Sirius went on, pointing to the door across from Ron, Iggy and Fang's room.

"Max, you're room is upstairs. When Hermione get's here, you'll be sharing with her. My room is on the top floor, but you can only go there in an emergency. Molly and Arthur's room will be upstairs as well. Any questions?"

Fred raised his hand. "Aren't you a criminal?"

Sirius almost smirked. "No, I'm not. I was framed. I'm sure these two," he said, pointing at me and Ron, "will fill you in."

He went to walk away, but when he reached the stairs, he said, "Max? Can I speak with you?"

I nodded. "Sure," I said, following him down the hall into a long, high-ceilinged room with green walls covered in filthy tapestries. Every time we stepped on the carpet, a cloud of dust would rise up.

"This is the drawing room," Sirius explained. "I'd stay away from the curtains, though. We think there are Doxy's in them." Now that she said it, I could hear a faint buzzing coming from the long, green curtains.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked him. But instead of answering me, Sirius just pulled me into a long, warm hug. I pressed my face into my father's neck and sighed happily.

"I've missed you," he mumbled before placing a soft kiss on my forehead and letting me go from the hug.

I smiled. "Yeah, last time we saw each other, we didn't get to talk much."

"I'm sorry about that, but Dumbledore had a job for me. And I couldn't risk getting caught. But how are you now? Are you feeling okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. What about you? You've been kinda grumpy all evening." Sirius grinned bitterly. "Yeah, sorry for that. It's just that I'm going to have to be cooped up in this house for months on end, at least. The Ministry is still looking for me, and apparently it's too risky to let me out in public."

"So this is the house you grew up in?" I said, trying to change the subject.

Sirius nodded. "Yeah. Not the happiest place to be as a kid...Here, have a look at this," he said, pointing to the large tapestry behind me.

I looked closer at the tapestry. It looked incredibly old, and there were patches gnawed off in places. Large writing at the top of the tapestry read:

**The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black **

**`Toujours pur' **

Looking at the tapestry, I saw that the dates went back as far as the Middle Ages.

"You're not on here!" I said after scanning the bottom of the tree closely.

"I used to be here," Sirius said, pointing to a small, round charred hole on the tapestry. "My sweet old mother did that after I ran away from home- Kreacher is very fond of muttering the story under his breath."

"Who is Kreacher?"

Sirius smirked. "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

"So you ran away from home?" I asked, putting the mysterious Kreacher out of my mind.

Sirius nodded. "Yup. When I was sixteen."

"Where'd you go? I mean, if you hadn't even finished school then, what did you do?"

"I went to Harry's dad's house. His grandparents were great about the whole thing. Practically adopted me. So I stayed at James's during the school holidays, and when I was seventeen I got a small place of my own. A few weeks after finishing seventh year, your mum moved in with me. Your Great Uncle Alphard left me quite a bit of money- he's been wiped off here too, that's probably why- anyway, after that I looked after myself. Provided for me and your mum, and managed to get her a decent engagement ring. We even got all the baby things for you. We were always welcome to the Potter's for Sunday lunch, though."

"Why did you run away?"

"Because I hated them all: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced me that if you were a Black, you were pretty much royalty...my idiot brother, your uncle, believed them...that's him, there."

Sirius jabbed his finger at the very bottom of the family tree, to the name `Regulus Black.' A date of death (about fifteen years previously) followed a date of birth.

"I was older than him," Sirius said, "but he was the better son, as I was constantly reminded."

"He's dead," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"Yeah," Sirius said. "Dumbass. Joined the Death Eaters."

"You're joking! Why would he do that?"

"Come on, Maxie, haven't you seen enough of this house to know what kind of people my family were?" Sirius asked.

"They were Death Eaters as well?" I asked.

"No. But they certainly thought that Voldemort had the right idea. They were all for getting rid of Muggle-Borns, and having pure-bloods in charge. Not the only ones, either. There were plenty of people who thought Voldemort had the right idea about things before he showed his true colours. They got cold feet, though, when they realised what Voldemort was prepared to do to gain power. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a right hero for joining him first."

"How did he die?"

"He was murdered by Voldemort," Sirius said. "Or, more likely, on Voldemort's orders; I doubt Regulus was ever high up enough to be killed off personally by Voldemort. From what I found out after he died, he got in too far, panicked about what he had to do, and tried to back up. Well, you can't just hand Voldemort a resignation. It's lifetime service or death."

"That's terrible," I muttered, looking at the tapestry.

"He was the only member of my family I wrote to when Grace told me she was pregnant with you," Sirius said. "He wrote back, but only with one word. _Congratulations. _That was the last time I ever spoke to him."

Sirius sighed. I looked up at him, surprised to see that his eyes looked genuinely sad. But before I could say anything, Sirius stepped closer to the tapestry and said, "I haven't looked at this old thing in years. That's Phineas Nigellus Black... he'd be your great-great-great grandfather... He was the least favourite Headmaster Hogwarts ever had... and Araminta Meliflua... cousin of my mothers... she tried to force a Ministry Bill to make Muggle-hunting legal... ah, and dear Aunt Elladora... she's the one who started the tradition of beheading the house-elves when they became too old to carry tea-trays... of course, whenever the family produced someone half decent, they were disowned. I see Tonks isn't on here..."

"I'm related to Tonks?" I asked, my eyes wide in surprise.

"Oh yeah. She didn't say anything to you? That's strange, I thought that would be the first thing she'd say when she saw you. Very excited to meet you, see was. Anyway, her mother Andromeda was my favourite cousin. So that would make Tonks your third cousin," Sirius said, scanning the tapestry closely. "No, Andromeda isn't on here either, look-"

He pointed to another small burn mark between two names, Bellatrix and Narcissa.

"Andromeda's sisters are still here because they made, lovely, respectable pure-blooded marriages, but Andromeda married a Muggle-born, Ted Tonks, so-"

Sirius mimed blasting the tapestry with a wand and laughed hollowly. But I didn't laugh. I was too busy staring at the names to the right of Andromeda's burn mark. A double line of gold embroidery linked Narcissa Black to Lucius Malfoy, and then a single vertical gold line led from their names to the name Draco.

I felt sick.

"Please tell me that they are different Malfoy's to the ones I'm thinking about," I said quietly.

"I'm afraid not, Max," Sirius said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "All the pure-blood families are interrelated some way or another. If you're only going to let your sons and daughters marry only pure-bloods, you choice is very limited; there are hardly any of us left. Me and Molly are cousins by marriage, and Arthur is something like my second cousin once removed or something like that. But there's no point looking for them on that- if ever a family was a bunch of blood-traitors like the Weasley's."

But I was now looking at the name to the left of Andromeda's burn: Bellatrix Black, which was connected by a double line to Rodolphus Lestrange.

"Lestrange..." I muttered. The name stirred something in my memory. I knew the name from somewhere, but I couldn't remember where, although it gave me an odd, creeping sensation in my stomach.

"They're in Azkaban," Sirius shortly.

I looked up at him, frowning.

"Bellatrix and her husband Rodolphus came in with Barty Crouch Junior," said Sirius. "Rodolphus's brother Rabastan was with them, too."

Then I remembered. I had seen Bellatrix inside Dumbledore's Pensieve: a tall, dark woman with heavy-lidded, who had stood at her trial and loudly proclaimed her continuing alliance to Lord Voldemort.

"You never said before-"

"Does it matter that's she's my cousin? Or that's she's your second cousin? As far as I'm concerned, she's not my family, and not yours. I haven't seen her since I was around your age, unless you count the glimpse I got of her coming into the Azkaban."

"Sorry," I said. "I was just surprised, I guess."

"Oh, it doesn't matter. Don't apologise," Sirius sighed, turning his back on the tapestry, his hands deep into his pockets. "I don't like being back here," he said, looking around the drawing room. "I never thought I'd be stuck in this house again. It's ideal for Headquarters though," he added. "My father out every security measure known to wizardkind on this place when he lived here. It's unplottable, so Muggle's could never come and call- as if they'd ever want to- and now Dumbledore's added his own protections. Dumbledore is Secret Keeper for the Order. Nobody can find Headquarters unless he tells them where it is."

He gave a short, bark-like laugh. "If my parents could see the use of their house was being put to now... well, your grandmothers portrait should give you some idea."

Suddenly, I remembered something. All of the talk about family, the thought just popped up in my mind.

"Sirius, can I talk to you about something?" I asked.

"Course, kiddo," he said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Well, remember at the end of third year? You sent me all those pictures?" I asked.

Sirius nodded. "Yes. What about them?"

"Well, you know the way the flock got taken back to the School? There was an Eraser there. And he looked exactly like that little boy that was in that picture with you and Mum. Why? Who is he?"

Sirius paled. "Why are you only talking about this now?"

I shrugged. "To be honest, with everything going on, it kinda slipped my mind. So? Who is he?"

Sirius ran his fingers through his long hair. "I guess this is my fault for forgetting I put that picture in with the rest, and not telling you about it." Sirius turned his back to me and muttered to himself, "But we thought he was dead..."

I raised my eyebrows. "Are you going to tell me about him? Is he my brother, or something?"

Sirius chuckled and shook his head. "No, he's not your brother. He's your cousin. Your mother had an older sister, Anna. Anna and her husband were killed by a werewolf. They had a little son, five years older than you, and after they were killed, he came to live with us. His name was Ari. But, a few weeks before you were born, he was taken from us. We always assumed it was Death Eaters, or the werewolf that killed his parents."

"So... he's my cousin? He was five years old, and he was made into an Eraser. That's even worse than what happened to us."

"Don't feel guilty about what happened to him, Max. But now that I know he's alive, I'll try everything I can to try and help him. Now, it's late and you've had quite a day. I'll show you to your bedroom."

Me and Sirius walked from the drawing room and up the stairs in silence. He showed me into a small room with two beds, a wardrobe and two dressers. My bags and trunk were already there, and Freedom's cage was on one of the dressers, empty. Someone already let him out hunting.

I hugged Sirius again. "Goodnight, Sirius."

"Night, kiddo. Its good to have you here." With a smile, he left the room and closed the door behind him.

* * *

_**And there it is folks. Welcome to Year 5! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter!**_

_**I know not that much happened in this chapter, but the next one will be more exciting. And sorry if the ending was a bit rushed, I wanted to get it finished so I could officially start the new story. **_

_**And now you know who the boy is! Yes, he is Ari, but he isn't Jeb's son, and he isn't Max's half brother. Instead, he's Max's cousin. Hope no one gets annoyed that I changed that little fact... **_

_**Anyway, I'm back to school in exactly a week, but this year at school will be a lot more relaxed than last year, so I'll get more time to write this! **_

_**Anyway, you all know the drill. If you want cookies and butterbeer, you need to... **_

_**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**_

_**LOVE YOU GUYS!**_

_**-Rach ;)**_


	2. The Attack

_**AUTHORS NOTE! :P**_

_**Hi! :)**_

_**I can't believe the response this story has already! You guys are all amazing! **_

_**Oh! And I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I WAS AT THE PARAMORE CONCERT ON MONDAY:D **_

_**Anyone else like Paramore? :)**_

_**Now, I shall answer some reviews...**_

_**BethZ: That's fine, don't rush it :) And yeah, I'm getting my results on the 11th, I think. Good luck with your results! **_

_**Cookie Spasms: Oh, that's really cool! Well, I hope you get the chance to audition! **_

_**Jamie'Juliet'M: Aw, thanks :) **_

_**Kisa tracer: Oh, really? Well, I'm glad that I cleared that up for you haha :)**_

_**The Angel From Above: Aw, I missed you too!**_

_**Arkell26: You're back to school already?! Poor you! Oh, thanks for pointing that out! **_

_**Now, onwards with the story!**_

_**Enjoy!**_

_**-Rach ;)**_

* * *

**Max's POV **

A month. That's how long we've been in this house. A whole month. And it was driving me completely bonkers.

Every night, Order members show up one by one, sometimes for a meeting, or sometimes just to have dinner in Grimmauld Place. The first few weeks we were there, and there was a meeting, we would all crowd around the stairs by the kitchen and use Fred and George's Extendable Ears to hear what was going on in the meetings.

We managed to learn a few useful things, but most of what we heard either didn't make any sense to us, or we already knew from our first night here. We knew that some of the Order were following known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, others were recruiting new members, or at least trying to get more people on our side, and positioning spies in various places. But the big thing we learned is that some of the Order were standing guard over something. Every meeting, there was constant talk about guard duty, who was on duty that night, how long they stayed guarding before the next person came to guard it, and so on.

But then, we got caught. Mrs Weasley found us on the stairs, and let's just say it wasn't pretty. We were scrubbing the kitchen for days afterwards, and Fred and George had to hide the last of the stash in me and Hermione's room.

Hermione got to Grimmauld Place a week after we did. Apparently, these people weren't messing around, and they wanted to make sure we were all safe.

So, let me tell you what exciting and dangerous things we got up to in the last month.

Cleaning.

_Cleaning. _

We have been cleaning this godforsaken house for over a month, and it was still disgusting.

The first places we tackled were the bedrooms, just so we wouldn't all die in our sleep. Next, was the kitchen, so we wouldn't get food poisoning. I won't go into too much detail about the things we found growing and breeding around the house. I'm still traumatised about it all.

Speaking of traumatising, I found out who and what Kreacher is.

Kreacher was the house-elf that serves the Black family and lives in the house. Only, he doesn't consider me part of the family. Every time I walk past him, he mutters under his breath, "mutant, freak...abomination to the noble and most ancient name of Black..." He even hates Sirius. In my opinion, he was a nutter. Kreacher's life ambition was to get his head chopped off and stuck up on the wall beside his ancestors.

Kreacher was really old, and he was always wearing a filthy rag tied around his middle. He was bald, like all house-elves, but there was still a large amount of white hair growing from his large, batlike ears. His eyes were a bloodshot, watery grey, and his nose was large and snoutlike.

All in all, he was the strangest house-elf I've ever seen.

We also discovered what happened to Buckbeak. Sirius still had him, and he was kept in Sirius's mother's room. And he was now called Witherwings to protect him from the Ministry. The bad thing was, Buckbeak was allowed go and fly a few nights a week. The flock weren't, and even though we walked around the house with our wings slightly spread out, if they were out too much, we'd just be in everyone's way. It sucked.

Another bad thing about being stuck in this place, was that we couldn't write any of it to Harry. We couldn't tell him where we were, what we were doing, or even that we weren't at the Burrow any more, or in Hermione's case, not with her parents. Dumbledore feared that the owls could be intercepted the wrong people would get all the information. So all of our letters to Harry were pretty much the same. That we were busy, we missed him, and that we'd tell him everything when we saw him again. But I could tell that he was getting frustrated with us. Who wouldn't?

But thankfully, on the second of August, we got to take a little break. Why? Because it was Fang's fifteenth birthday.

For my birthday a few weeks earlier, it was a lot quieter than the last few years. Seeing as it was risky to be out for a long time, I didn't get anything hugely special. Just a few books, few items of clothing and a lovely dinner with all my favourite foods and a double-chocolate-chip cookies for dessert. It was heaven.

For Fang, it was basically the same. The only difference was that the whole flock were climbing the walls in the stupid house on Fang's birthday. Spending basically a whole month in a house, only going outside for about five minutes a day was torture to us. Especially because it's been a month since we went flying.

And it was for that reason that I came up with a genius plan.

The flock were all sitting in my room (Hermione and Ginny were helping Mrs Weasley with the washing) after dinner, and I was telling them my plan to go flying (we told everyone that we were going to hang in my room for the night and not to disturb us). I knew asking if we could go would only lead to many no's and a lot of arguments, which I seriously wanted to avoid. Ever since we arrived at Grimmauld Place, Percy's name seemed almost cursed. Any time someone even mentioned his name, Mrs Weasley would burst into tears, and Mr Weasley would simply drop whatever he was holding, and if he wasn't holding anything, he just froze on the spot for a couple of minutes.

"We all clear on the plan?" I asked, looking at my flock.

Five heads nodded back at me... well, five flock heads, and one dog head nodded back at me. Everyone in the house knew that Total could speak, and now that everyone knew, there was no stopping him. He was almost talked more than Nudge. _Almost. _

So, as quietly as possible, I opened my bedroom door and poked my head out. I listened, and when I heard that no one was coming, I indicated for the flock to follow me.

I had checked earlier that day, while we were cleaning. The only way outside of this house without breaking a window or setting off an alarm was through the front door.

Yay.

So now, we had to creep through the house without anyone seeing us, or hearing us, and without the lovely portrait of my grandmother waking up and screaming the place down.

We made it to the ground floor without anyone seeing us. All of the Order members had left after Fang's birthday cake, so that was one less thing to worry about. I could hear Hermione, Ginny and Mrs Weasley talking as they cleaned up the kitchen.

We tip-toed across the hallway, passing the portrait of Sirius's mother as quietly as possible. Fortunately, Nudge didn't trip over the trolls leg again, and we actually made it to the front door without being caught.

Pulling my wand from my jeans pocket, I muttered the spell I heard the Order members say as they opened the door, and the door opened silently. I stood back and let the flock go out in front of me, before sneaking out myself and gently pushing the door closed behind me.

I didn't breath again until we were nearly three blocks away. "I can't believe we actually managed to do that," I said as we found a small, empty playground where we could safely take off without being seen.

"We just got lucky. Sirius said him, Ron and Mr Weasley were going to wash Buckbeak, so that's why we didn't see them. The twins are in they're room, inventing products and stuff. Even if Kreacher did see us, he'd probably be overjoyed to see that we were leaving the house. I think everyone else has gone home. So, I think we just got extremely lucky tonight," Nudge said.

"Agreed. Come on, let's fly!"

We all grouped near the swings and removed our jackets, leaving them behind a bush in the playground. Then, the six of us lined up, and took a running start, with Total resting comfortably in Fang's arms.

Finally, we were flying. After so long, it felt amazing to spread my wings again, to feel the rush of the wind against my face. I laughed and flipped around in the air.

I wasn't sure how long we were flying together before I saw it. We were flying over London city, just around Trafalgar Square and I was looking down at the ground at all the people and cars, when I saw a group of people crowded around each other in an alleyway. I wasn't going to give it a second though, but then I noticed that it wasn't just a group of weird people having a chat in an alley. One of the men down there was getting beaten up by the other guys.

"No, Max," Fang said as if he read my mind. "We shouldn't get involved."

"There is a dude down there getting beaten up, Fang! We can help him!"

"There is also about seven or eight guys down there too! How are we meant to stop eight full grown men?"

"There is six of us, Fang. And we're more than capable to kicking their butts! It will take about five minutes!"

And before he could object any more, I dived down towards the alley. I looked over my shoulder and saw the flock were following me, even Fang, although he was scowling and muttering under his breath.

Making sure we weren't seen, we landed quietly in the alleyway behind the group of men, preparing ourselves for the fight.

It was only then that I realised the men in front of us weren't men.

Not really, anyway.

Just then, more of them came up behind us. We were completely surrounded.

By Erasers.

And the one closest to me was...

Ari.

My cousin.

Oh hell.

For a few seconds we all just kind of stood there. There were around fifteen Erasers, maybe more.

Then I leaped into action, knowing the flock would follow my lead. There was no getting out of here without fighting the Erasers.

I ran to the Eraser on my left, and while he was still surprised at the sudden action, I kicked his shin. When he bent over, clutching his leg, I kneed him in face. He fell on the ground, unconscious.

I was immediately swarmed by Erasers, so I punched, kicked, jabbed, kneed and elbowed every chance I got. I finally got enough space, so I did a round-house kick that got two Erasers right in the head. They both dropped like a sack of potatoes.

One Eraser came up behind me and grabbed my arms. He pinned them behind my back, and was pulling on my arms so hard I was afraid that my shoulders would pop out of their sockets. Another Eraser came up in front of me, and with a sick smile, he started pounding into my stomach and ribs. I bit hard on my lip to stop from crying out. My entire stomach was going to be covered in bruises.

He wasn't even punching at me for a whole minute when I felt the arms holding me back slacking, then letting go of me completely. I snapped a kick to the Eraser's head, dazing him, then I clapped my hands over his ears, causing him to cry out and collapse.

It turned around and saw Fang punching the Eraser that had been holding me. I nodded to him, and took the moment to look around me. There were only five Erasers left. Iggy and Fang were going up against the two biggest ones that were left, Nudge was holding her own against her own Eraser. Angel and the Gasman were both fighting one Eraser.

That only left one more.

And of course, it was Ari.

My cousin smirked at me as he walked slowly towards me. "Hiya, Max," he said. "Do you know who I am yet?"

"I know that you're my cousin, Ari," I said. "And I know you were taken away, just like me. You never asked to be turned into an Eraser."

Ari laughed. "Don't try that on me, cousin. I like my life. I like doing what I do. It's... fun, being an Eraser. You should try it," he said, and lunged toward me. Now, you can't get turned into an Eraser by being bitten by one. If that was true, I'd be an Eraser a million times over. But that didn't stop Ari from trying to land his fangs into my skin.

I leaped out of the way, and twirled around just in time to block Ari's claws from scratching at my back. I took the opportunity to kick out at Ari's legs, and he tumbled to the ground, but he brought me down with him. Ari's elbow came up, and hit my mouth. I tasted blood well up in my mouth.

I brought my fist back, then punched him in the nose. I heard his nose crack, and blood started gushing down his face.

Ari growled angrily, showing all of his sharp fangs. He pushed me off him, and pinned me down. He drew back one of his hands, claws out, and slashed them down against my arm.

I swallowed back a cry, and brought my knee up hard against his stomach. Ari fell off me, and I took the chance to leap to my feet and deliver the last blow to Ari's head that left him unconscious on the floor.

I looked around again. Most of the Erasers were now unconscious on the ground, and the rest had fled. I looked at the flock, who were finished with their fights. None of them seemed too hurt. Angel had a cut on her neck that was bleeding slightly, and a few bruises on her arms and face. Gazzy had a large bruise forming under his eye, and his nose was bleeding, but didn't look broken. Nudge had a few scratches around her face, neck and arms, and she was cradling her left hand to her chest. Fang's lip was busted and bleeding, like mine, and he also had a large cup over his eyebrow that was bleeding into his right eye. Iggy was holding onto his stomach, and had a huge bruise along his jaw. The six of us had scratches and cuts all over our faces.

I walked over to them, keeping one hand against the long gashes on my arm. They weren't that deep, but they were long and bleeding.

"I think we should go back to the house," I said after a minutes silence.

"Good idea," Fang snapped.

"Don't get snappy with me! How was I supposed to know any of this would happen?"

Fang didn't reply, he just glared at me.

"Let's go," I said, walking out of the alley. "Where's Total?"

"I'm here!" a voice called from behind one of the bins. "Hope everyone's okay!"

I rolled my eyes, and let Total jump into my arms. "We're fine," I said. I turned around and raised my eyebrows. "Right?"

I got nods from the flock, and relaxed a little more.

We ran from the alley, and flew into the air, our wings moving in sync. "How did they find us?" Nudge asked eventually.

"No idea," I said. "But let's just keep our heads down until we get back to Hogwarts, okay?" But of course, I knew we wouldn't be one hundred per cent safe at Hogwarts. When teachers or students aren't trying to kill you, there is magical creatures, or else Erasers get into the grounds. But, it was safer than staying around on our own.

We flew the rest of the way back in silence. When we landed back in the park where we had taken off, we got our jackets from the bushes, than ran back to Grimmauld Place.

I opened the door, using the same spell again, and let the others walk ahead of me. I closed the door behind me, and whispered, "Okay, guys. I think there is a Muggle first-aid kit in the kitchen. We can sneak in and-"

"I don't think you'll be sneaking anywhere," Sirius said.

I froze. The lights in the hall turned on, and I saw Sirius and Mrs Weasley standing in the hallway. They both looked furious.

"What do you think you were doing? Who knows who could have followed you here, or-" Mrs Weasley started shouting, but then stopped when she took in our bloody and dirty appearances. Her expression immediately went from furious to concerned and worried. "Oh Merlin, what happened to you? Come on, come on, down to the kitchen. I'll fix you up."

I avoided Sirius's eyes as I walked past him to the kitchen. Mrs Weasley lined us all up at the table, and started running her wand over our bodies. As soon as we done with that, she rushed off for potions and bandages, and we were left alone with Sirius.

"What happened?" he asked in an eerie calm voice I knew he only used when he was incredibly furious. Whether he was mad at me and the flock, I don't know.

"We were ambushed by Erasers," I said, my words slightly slurred from my fat lip.

"And why were you out of the house in the first place?"

I sighed. "Because we were going crazy in here. We needed to fly, Sirius. We knew we'd never be allowed, so we just..."

"Left a safe house, and got attacked for it," Sirius snapped. I sighed again, rubbing my forehead. I felt a headache coming on.

"We didn't know we'd get attacked! We were flying over an alleyway, and I saw a group of guys beating up some other guy, so we flew down to help. Then we got surrounded, and we totally kicked all of their butts."

"That's not the point Max! The point is-"

"Look, I know we shouldn't of left. But we couldn't help it. _I _couldn't help it. I know you feel it as well, Sirius. Being stuck in this house is driving you mad, just like us."

Sirius didn't answer, and at last, he didn't look angry any more.

Mrs Weasley came back into the kitchen, her arms loaded down with bandages and potions.

"Okay, Angel honey, come here," Mrs Weasley said, helping Angel up onto the table so she could heal the cut on Angel's neck. Sirius moved to Gazzy, and started helping him. Soon, the whole flock were fixed up and healed (with the exception of cuts and bruises) apart from me and Fang. Mrs Weasley went to Fang, and Sirius took my arm and lead me to a chair.

He gave me a potion to drink, and I gulped it down, not even bothering to ask what it was for. Sirius covered the cuts on my arms in bandages, then gave me more potions and muttered a few spells. I felt most of my pain and discomfort vanish. I gave my dad a small smile. "Thanks," I said. "And sorry for sneaking out. I shouldn't have planned anything-"

"Max, you don't have to apologise. Sometimes, I wish I could just walk out that door and actually be outside. But if I did that, it would mean risking you. I don't want to be away from you for any other reason than your at school. And honestly? When I was your age, I was sneaking out of here almost every night. I also used to sneak out in the grounds at Hogwarts as well, with or without the others. So I can't be mad at you for doing what I used to do, and what I want to do. But just promise me you won't do it again?"

I grinned, which kind of hurt my lip. "I promise, Dad. Thanks."

Sirius's eyes lit up when I called him Dad. He looked almost ten years younger. At that moment, I told myself that I needed to call him Dad a lot more.

"No problem, kiddo. Now, I think it would be best if you all-"

But he was cut off by the front door slamming closed, and Sirius's mum's portrait screaming. A few seconds later, Mr Weasley burst into the kitchen, looking out of breath and flustered.

Before he could say anything, Sirius and Mrs Weasley rushed to the hall and after a few minutes, the screaming stopped.

"Arthur, what's wrong with you? You know better than just bursting in like that!" Mrs Weasley said.

"I'm sorry, Molly, but something happened tonight, and it's important!" Mr Weasley said, stepping closer to his wife.

"More important than the kids sneaking out to go flying, and getting attacked by Erasers?" Mrs Weasley said, sending us a sharp glare. Oh great. Now that she knew we weren't going to drop dead from injuries, she was angry again.

"What? When did this happen?" he asked.

"Never mind that, Arthur. What's happened?" Sirius asked.

Mr Weasley sat down in one of the chairs and ran a hand over his face. "Tonight, Dementors attacked in Little Whinging."

"Little Whinging? But that's where-"

"Harry lives," I said, finishing for Iggy.

Mr Weasley nodded. "The two Dementors attacked Harry and his cousin, Dudley. Harry had to use a Patronus Charm to save them both, and the Ministry sent him a letter saying that he was expelled from Hogwarts."

"WHAT?" we all shouted. There were running footsteps coming down the stairs. The kitchen door opened again, and in came Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George.

"What's all the shouting about?" Fred asked.

Mr Weasley repeated what happened to Harry.

"That's ridiculous!"

"They can't do that!"

"What the hell are they thinking?"

"They're idiots!"

"Then," Mr Weasley continued, "Dumbledore came to the Ministry. Now, Harry has to go to a disciplinary hearing in a few weeks to see whether or not he'll be expelled and get his wand snapped."

There was silence.

"But... but surely he can't be expelled. He used the spell in self defence! You're allowed use magic in life or death situations!" Hermione squeaked, looking worried.

Mr Weasley shook his head. "Have any of you been reading the Daily Prophet?"

I shook my head, but the others nodded.

I stared at them. "Well, I've been reading the headlines on the fist few pages. I figured that if anything about Voldemort would be in the papers, it would be there."

"Max... The prophet's been writing about you and Harry," Ginny said.

I frowned. "What do you mean writing about us? What are they even writing about?"

"Erm... well, you're mentioned a couple times a week..."

"But wouldn't I have seen-"

"We're not talking about big articles here, Max. Your both just slipped in, like some kind of joke. It's quite nasty actually..." Ginny said.

"They're just building on Rita's stuff. You know, calling you and Harry deluded, attention-seeking kids, who are obsessed with being big heroes and all that. They keep slipping in snide comments. If there's some far-fetched story, they'd say something like, `A tale worthy of Harry Potter and Maximum Ride', and if someone's had an accident, it'd be `Let's hope he hasn't got a scar on his forehead, or wings, or we'll be asked to worship him next.'"

"I don't want anyone to worship me! And why haven't any of you told me this before?"

"We didn't think it mattered that much! But can't you see what's happening? The Ministry is turning everyone against you and Harry, and they will do everything they can to make sure no one believes you! And it's obvious that Fudge is controlling the Prophet. They aren't going to care what Harry's done, they will try and get him expelled. You're probably their next target," Hermione said.

"So there's actually a chance that Harry will be expelled?" Nudge asked.

"Not if we have anything to do with it," Sirius growled.

"Wait, I thought Mundungus was meant to watching Harry this evening. What happened?" Mrs Weasley asked.

Mr Weasley shrugged. "No idea. But I do know I'll be having a word with him at the next meeting."

Just then, the front door was slammed opened again, causing Mrs Black to start screaming again. Mrs Weasley huffed and left to go stop the portrait. I heard her shouting the spell, then saying, "Oh, hello Professor Dumbledore!"

I spun around, and sure enough, good old Albus Dumbledore was walking into the kitchen. But Dumbledore just looked as furious as Sirius and Mrs Weasley had earlier.

"Where is Mundungus Fletcher?" Dumbledore shouted.

"We don't know, Albus. I was just going to go look for him myself," Mr Weasley said.

Dumbledore sighed, and said, "Don't bother, Arthur. He should be here soon enough." Then he looked around and saw all the potions and used bandages. Then he saw all the cuts and bruises on the flocks face, and the large bandage on my arm. His blue eyes (that weren't twinkling tonight- always a bad sign) widened. "And what happened to all of you?"

"We got attacked by Erasers, but that's not important right now. I need to go to Harry's, right now," I said, and tried to walk out of the kitchen. Fang grabbed my arm, and pulled me back. "What are you doing? Harry was attacked by Dementors tonight, and he could be getting expelled! I- I mean we, should be with him!"

"No, Max," Dumbledore said, still angry. "I don't think it's a coincidence that Harry was attacked by Dementors on the same night that the flock were attacked by Erasers. It's safer here."

"What about Harry? Shouldn't he be brought here? Like, tonight?"

"Harry is actually safer at his aunt and uncles house for the time being. But he will be brought to Grimmauld Place in the next few days. Now, I want everyone that is not in the Order to go to bed, right now," Dumbledore ordered.

"You can't just saunter in here and order us to go-" I started, but Mrs Weasley shrieked, "Max! That is enough! Now, go to bed! All of you! NOW!"

Nudge grabbed my wrist, and dragged me out of the kitchen, the others following behind us.

"I can't believe this," I muttered as we climbed the stairs. "We should get to know what's going on!"

"Let's just get to bed, Max. We'll figure everything out tomorrow," Iggy said.

Just before going into the boys bedroom, the front door opened once more. But this time, thankfully, the portrait of my lovely grandmother didn't wake up. I heard someone moving loudly towards the kitchen. It was only a few seconds later that I heard Dumbledore shouting and yelling at Mundungus. Now, I've only met Mundungus a couple of times, but I have to give it to the man, he was pretty hilarious. And the only reason he was in the Order in the first place was because he was a petty criminal and knew most of the thieves and criminals, so he was trying to get them on our side.

Even though we couldn't hear what Dumbledore was saying, it was still terrifying to hear him yelling at anyone like that.

Finally, after nearly twenty minutes, we all hear Dumbledore stop shouting at Mundungus, and we head the door open and close as Dumbledore left. A few minutes later, I heard Mundungus leave.

"Right guys, let's go to bed. We'll talk about everything tomorrow," I said, leaving the boys with Hermione and going up the stairs to our bedroom.

"Are you all right? Did you really get attacked by Erasers?" Hermione asked.

I nodded, and explained everything that happened.

"That's terrible," she said. "Did you tell Sirius about your cousin?"

I shook my head. "No. I might tell him in the morning, but I didn't want to do it tonight."

We reached our room, and walked in. I fell straight on my bed, and was asleep within seconds, dreaming about what Hogwarts would be like if Harry got expelled.

* * *

**_I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG_**

**_AND IF IT WAS A BAD, BORING CHAPTER._**

**_BUT THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE BETTER_**

**_I PROMISE_**

**_So, next chapter should be up in the next few days... I hope... _**

**_Anyway, love you guys, and you know the drill..._**

**_if you want cookies and butterbeer, you need to... _**

**_REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!_**

**_LOVE YOU!_**

**_-Rach ;)_**


	3. Harry's Arrival

_**AUTHORS NOTE! :P **_

_**Sup people! **_

_**I can't believe you guys! This is only the 3rd chapter and the response is already brilliant! Thank you! **_

_**Now I shall answer some reviews! **_

_**Random Person: I've played some of them, but not that one. Is it any good? :)**_

_**Patrick Not Star: I understand what you mean. Thanks :)**_

_**insaneshadowfangirl: I can't wait to write it :) **_

_**The Angel From Above: *spreads arms wide* I LOVE YOU TOO. **_

_**Arkell 26: It always sucks. Always. (see what I did there? hahaa :D) **_

_**Kisa Tracer: I appreciate your honesty, and the story will pick up soon, I hope :)**_

_**Patrick: Thanks for understanding haha :) And thanks for the cybernetic hug! *cybernetic hug back* :D **_

_**And thanks to everyone else that reviewed! :) **_

_**Now, on with the story! **_

_**Enjoy! **_

_**-Rach ;) **_

* * *

_**Max's POV **_

I paced up and down the kitchen floor, biting anxiously on my fingernails. It had been four days since we fought against the Erasers and Harry was attacked by Dementors. For the last four days, the flock had been kept busy with extra cleaning as punishment for sneaking out. But that didn't stop me from worrying about Harry.

I stared at the marks on my knuckles, left there by Hedwig when she got here a few days ago. She wouldn't stop pecking out hands, and nearly everyone in the house had similar marks on their hands. I had a feeling Harry told her not to leave until he got decent answers.

After dinner, eight members from the Order of the Phoenix (including Lupin, Moody and Tonks) had left to go take Harry away from Privet Drive and bring him here. That was almost half an hour ago, and I was running out of fingernail to bite on.

"Max, sweetheart, you need to calm down," Mrs Weasley said from where she was making tea and watching the dishes from dinner wash themselves. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

I stopped pacing and looked around the kitchen. Mr Weasley was sitting at the table, with a newspaper propped in front of him, but his eyes weren't moving. The flock were either sitting down or standing up, watching me pace up and down. Fred and George had disappeared into their room after dinner, and Hermione, Ron and Ginny were upstairs, waiting for us to join them. And Sirius... Well he hadn't been seen since that afternoon, when Dumbledore announced who would go to bring Harry back to Headquarters. I heard Sirius begging to be allowed go for nearly forty minutes. After that, he disappeared somewhere in the house. He didn't even come down for dinner.

Suddenly, I got an idea. "I'm going to find Sirius and bring him some dinner," I said, walking over to where the leftovers were. Piling bits of everything onto a clean plate, I turned to leave the kitchen, the flock following me.

"We'll be with in our room," Fang said on the first floor landing before walking into the room he shared with Iggy and Ron.

I checked the dining room, a few of the spare bedrooms (won't go into detail about what I saw in them) and even checked in the room Buckbeak stayed in. But no sign of Sirius.

Finally, I got to the top floor, where I hadn't been before. I passed a few closed doors, one of which had a plaque, but it was too dusty to read what it said. It looked like initials though. I kept going, and eventually I saw what seemed to be the cleanest door on the whole floor. Written on the door was _Sirius. _

I knocked hesitantly on the door, and heard a quiet "Come in."

I opened the door with my right hand, balancing the tray of food with my left. I peered into the room, and saw my father sitting against the carved headboard of a huge bed. The room had a tall window with long velvet curtains, and there was a candle chandelier. There were so many pictures and posters covering the wall I could hardly make out the wallpaper. The whole room was decorated with Gryffindor banners and Gryffindor colours.

Looking closer at the pictures, I saw a few Muggle posters of girls in bikini's on motorbikes. I noticed the majority of the pictures were of the Marauders, either all four of them together or just two or three of them together. The one's closer to the bed and desk were all of Sirius and my mum, or just my mum on her own.

I looked back at my father, who was staring at me curiously.

I lifted the tray higher and said, "I brought you food."

Sirius smirked. "I can see that." He patted on the bed beside him, and I sat down, leaving the tray on his lap.

"Permanent Sticking Charm?" I guessed, pointing to the posters, pictures and banners.

Sirius nodded, swallowing his chicken. "Drove my mother mad. She never stopped trying to pull them all down, bless her." We were silent for a few more minutes while Sirius ate.

"Why have you been up here all day?" I asked.

Sirius shoved his empty plate away from him. "I just wanted some space. I suppose I was a bit... annoyed that I couldn't be part of Harry's Guard."

"Well you can't be sulking up here when they get back. They should be here soon enough. Plus, there's an Order meeting in half an hour." I said.

"I know, I know..."

For the next twenty minutes, we stayed in my dad's room, talking about nothing important. Mostly about superheroes.

"Batman would so be able to kick Superman's butt!" I argued.

"But Batman doesn't have any actual superpowers. Superman could just pick him up and throw him into a wall. End of," Sirius said, grinning.

I huffed, crossing my arms."Batman doesn't need superpowers to beat Superman. All he needs to do is get a bit of Kryptonite and Superman is out of commission!"

"Yeah okay, but Superman would never let Batman get close enough to him to use the Kryptonite."

"But Batman is freaking Batman. No more argument needed."

Sirius sighed, holding back a laugh. "Okay, okay, fine. You win. Batman would win against Superman."

I nodded, laughing. "Damn right."

Then for no reason at all, we both burst into massive fits of laughter, and just couldn't stop. Five minutes later, we managed to regain control of ourselves. I sat up, wiping tears from my eyes. "That was random," I said, nearly setting us off again.

"Come on, kiddo. I have an Order meeting to attend," Sirius said, and he pulled me up from the bed. As we were walking from the room, I saw a picture of my parents, both of them smiling happily, with Sirius resting his hands on Grace's very pregnant belly.

"Sirius? Can I ask you something?" I said.

Sirius turned around and saw where I was looking. He swallowed, but nodded anyway. "Yeah, of course."

I hesitated, not wanting to make him upset again. "How long... after I was taken to the School... how long after I was taken did she die?"

Sirius's face turned pale. "She was killed a few weeks after Harry was born. Your mother and I were being trained as Aurors at the time, with James and Lily being permanent members of the Order. After Grace died... I spent the majority of my time over at James and Lily's, or with Remus. I suppose I didn't want to be on my own. Grace got to spent more time with Harry than she did with you, which clearly isn't fair. But she loved him. She spoiled him rotten. I suppose we all had a reputation of sorts. One night, I was over a James', and Voldemort showed up at our house while Grace was on her own, and... well, you know the rest."

"You don't blame yourself, do you?"

Sirius avoided looking me in the eyes. "I shouldn't of left her on her own. It had been barely a month after we lost you, and we were both coping our own ways, I guess. But I still should of made sure she wasn't on her own."

"It wasn't your fault, Dad. There was nothing you could of done," I said.

Sirius finally looked up. "I could of kept my head. After you, and Grace... Then Lily and James were killed, and Harry was taken off to the Dursley's... I snapped after that. Went straight after Pettigrew without thinking. And you know what happened next..."

"None of that stuff was your fault. I know that, Harry knows that. No one blames you for any of that," I said, stepping closer to him.

Sirius looked at me and smiled. "Thanks, kiddo," he said, wrapping his arms around me in a brief hug. "Come on. I'm going to be late."

We left the room, and headed downstairs. I stopped on the first floor landing, and Sirius kept going down the stairs. I stayed outside the door to the boys room, going through everything I had just learned, trying to clear my mind so I wouldn't be dwelling on any of it. When my mind was finally clear, I opened the door to the boy's bedroom, and walked in to see that only Hermione, Ron, Iggy and Fang were in there. Freedom, Hedwig, Grenade, Stygian and Pig were all sleeping on top of the wardrobe.

"Hey guys," I said. "Where is everyone?"

Ron shrugged. "Everyone's doing their own thing. Where were you?"

"With Sirius," I said. "How long until Harry get's here?"

"Dunno," Iggy said, stretching out on one of the beds. "He'll get here when he get's here."

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks, Ig. Very helpful."

Iggy grinned impishly. "Always here to provide assistance."

We stayed up there for nearly forty minutes, waiting around, making occasional conversation to hide how tense we all were.

I had just gone back to pacing and biting my non-existent fingernails when I heard the front door opening, and voices coming from downstairs. "They're back," I said, going to the bedroom door.

"Max, wait," Hermione said. "The meeting isn't over yet. They'll have to send Harry up here. Let's just wait for him to come up. We shouldn't overwhelm him, especially after how little we've been writing to him."

I started to argue, but stopped myself. Hermione was right. Of course she was.

I huffed and started pacing again. Then, just over two minutes later, I heard footsteps on the stairs. Five seconds later, the door opened, and in came Harry Potter. His jet black hair was just as messy as ever, and his bright green eyes were confused under his round glasses. I went to go hug him, but Hermione bet me to it.

"HARRY! Oh, how are you? Are you all right? Oh, you must be so angry with us. I know, our letters have been useless- but we couldn't tell you anything, Dumbledore made us all swear we wouldn't tell you too much. Oh, we've all got so much to tell you, and you've got things to tell us- the Dementors! And the Ministry Hearing, the whole thing is completely outrageous. I've looked it up, they can't expel you for defending yourself. There's provision in the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations-"

"Let him breathe, Hermione," Ron said, grinning. At this stage, we were all standing up around Harry, grinning at him.

Beaming, Hermione let go of Harry and took a step back, but before another word could be said there was a soft whooshing sound, and Hedwig flew down from the wardrobe and landed on Harry's shoulder.

"Hedwig!" Harry said, looking the happiest since got into the room.

The snowy owl hooted softly and nibbled his ear affectionately.

"She's been in a right state," Iggy said. "Pecked us all half to death when she came with your last letters, see-"

We all showed Harry the different marks we had on hands and fingers.

"Oh, yeah," Harry said. "Sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know-"

"We wanted to give them to you, mate," Fang said. "But Dumbledore made us-"

"-swear not to tell me, yeah I know," Harry said.

There was a strained silence, eventually broken by Hermione. "He seemed to think it was best," she said breathlessly. "Dumbledore, I mean."

"Right," Harry said.

"I think he probably thought you were safest with the Muggles-" Ron started.

"Oh, yeah?" Harry said, raising his eyebrows. "Have either of you been attacked by Dementors this summer?"

I looked at him, and spoke for the first time since he came in the room. "No," I said. "We haven't. But the flock were attacked by Erasers the same night you got attacked by Dementors."

Harry opened his mouth to retort, but then closed it again. "Wait, what? What happened?"

Started to feel annoyed, I glared at him. "The flock and I sneaked out of the house and went flying. We got attacked by Erasers. We fought them and won. That's it."

All of a sudden, Harry's concerned look vanished. "Well, at least none of you are facing expulsion. None of you were being followed around all summer. Which, obviously didn't work that well seeing as I had to look after myself in the end."

"He was so angry," Hermione said quietly as I turned my back on Harry, trying to push down the irritation I was feeling. "Dumbledore. We could hear him. When he found out Mundungus had left before he was meant to. It was terrifying."

Harry scoffed. "Well, I'm glad he left," Harry said coldly. "If he hadn't, I'd probably still be stuck in Privet Drive for the rest of the summer."

I turned around again, frowning at Harry. "Aren't you worried about the hearing?"

"No," Harry said. It was obvious he was lying, but I decided not to call him out on it.

"So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark?" he asked. "Did any of you- er- bother to ask him?"

"We told Dumbledore loads of times we wanted to tell you what was happening," Iggy said. "We really did, mate. But he's really busy right now, we've only seen him about twice or three times since we got here, he just made us swear not to tell you anything important when we wrote to you. He said the owls could be intercepted."

"He still could've kept me informed if he wanted to," Harry said. "You're not telling me that he hasn't come up with a way to send messages without owls. Maybe he thinks I can't be trusted."

I almost laughed. "Don't be an idiot, Harry."

"Or maybe he thinks I can't be trusted."

"Of course he doesn't think that!" Hermione said anxiously.

"So how come I've had to stay at the Dursleys' with all of you got to join in everything that's happening here?" Harry said, his voice growing louder with every word. "How come you're all allowed know everything that's going on?"

"We're not," Fang said. "We aren't allowed in the meetings, they said we're too young."

Then, Harry started shouting.

"SO WHAT? YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, WHO CARES? YOU'RE STILL HERE, AREN'T YOU? YOU'VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! I'VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSLEYS' FOR A BLOODY MONTH!AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THINGS THAN YOU LOT HAVE AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT- WHO SAVED THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED YOU FROM THE DEMENTORS?"

I was about to start yelling right back at him, but I never got the chance. Hedwig have a frightened hoot and flew from his shoulder back to the wardrobe.

"WHO HAD TO GET PAST THE DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER TERRIBLE THING LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!"

Ron and Iggy were standing with their mouths half-open, speechless, Fang looked slightly annoyed, Hermione was on the verge of tears, and I was just plain furious.

"BUT WHY THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?"

"Harry, we wanted to tell you, we did-" Hermione began.

"CAN'T HAVE WANTED THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU WOULD HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT NO, DUMBLEDORE MADE YOU SWEAR-"

"Well, he did-"

"FOUR WEEKS I'VE BEEN STUCK IN PRIVET DRIVE, STEALING NEWSPAPERS OUT OF BINS, TRYING TO FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING."

"We wanted to-"

"I SUPPOSE YOU'VE ALL BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HERE TOGETHER-"

"HARRY, SHUT UP FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE I HIT YOU!" I shouted.

Harry glared at me.

"Are you forgetting that we helped you to do all those things? Are you forgetting that you guys never would have found the Chamber if it wasn't for Hermione? Or that we wouldn't have been able to conjure a true Patronus without Lupin's help? Are you forgetting how much we helped you prepare for the all the tasks last year? And I'm pretty sure you forgot that I was in the graveyard with you as well. I saw him come back, and I fought against him too. So why don't you shut up and stop being sorry for yourself!" I snapped, my voice getting louder with each word.

Harry stared at me, breathing deeply. He started pacing up and down the room. "What is this place, anyway?"

"Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix," Ron said.

"And what is the Order of the Phoenix?"

"It's a secret society," Hermione said quickly. "Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it when You-Know-Who first came into power. They started it back up again at the start of the holidays. It's all the people who fought against him last time, and some new people as well."

"Who's in it?" Harry said, his hands in his pockets.

"A few people-"

"We've met about twenty of them," Iggy said. "But we've pretty sure there are loads more."

Harry glared at us.

"Well?" he snapped.

"What?" I said.

"Voldemort!" Harry said angrily. Ron and Hermione winced. "What's happening? Where is he? What's he been doing? How are we going to stop him?"

"We've already told you, we're not allowed into the Order meetings," I said impatiently. "We don't know the proper details. But we have a general idea."

"Fred and George have these Extendable Ears," Ron said. "They're really useful."

"Extendable-"

"Ears, yeah. We've had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went mental. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum throwing them all out. But we got a good use out of them before Mum realised what we were doing. We know some of the Order are trailing known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them-"

"Other's are out recruiting more people for the Order," Hermione said.

"And others are guarding something," I said. "They were always going on about guard duty."

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" Harry said sarcastically.

I shrugged. "Maybe. But I doubt it. The way they spoke about it, it sounds like they're guarding an object. But they never went into too much detail about it."

"So if you haven't been allowed into the meeting, what have you been doing? You said you've been `busy'."

"We have," Fang said. "We've been decontaminating the house."

"It's been empty for years and stuff has been breeding in here," Hermione said. "We've managed to clean out the kitchen, most of the bedrooms and I think we're doing the dining room tomo- AARGH!"

With two load cracks, Fred and George, showed up out of the thin air in the middle of the room. Pigwidgeon twittered more wildly than ever and sat beside Hedwig on the wardrobe.

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins.

"Hey, Harry," George said, smiling at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry. Best to let it all out," Fred said, beaming happily. "There's a possibility that the people fifty miles away didn't hear you."

"You two passed your Apparation tests then?" Harry said grumpily.

"With distinction," Fred said, holding a a piece of long, flesh-coloured string.

"You know, it would of taken you a whole thirty seconds longer to actually walk down the stairs," I said.

"Time is Galleons, little sister," George said. "Anyway, Harry, you're interfering with reception. Extendable Ears," he added, holding up the flesh coloured string. "We're trying to hear what's going on downstairs."

"You should be careful," Ron said. "If Mum catches you with them again..."

"This is definitely worth the risk. Major meeting they're having."

The door opened and Ginny, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel came in.

"Oh, hi Harry!" Ginny said brightly. "I thought I heard your voice."

"Hey Harry!" Angel said happily, running up and wrapping her little arms around Harry's legs. Harry hugged her back, giving her a small grin.

Ginny turned to Fred and George and said, "It's a no-go with the Extendable Ears. She's gone and put an Imperturable Charm on the door."

"How'd you know?" George said, looking crestfallen.

"Tonks told me how to figure it out," Ginny said. "You just throw stuff at the door, and if it can't make contact, the doors been Imperturabed. We've been flicking Dungbombs at the kitchen door from the stairs and they just soar away from it, so there's no way the Extendable Ears will get in under the door."

Fred sighed. "Shame. I really fancied finding out what old Snape's been up to."

"Snape!" Harry said quickly. "He's here?"

"Yeah," George said, closing the door and sitting down on one of the beds. The other's followed. "Giving a report. Top secret."

"Git," Iggy said.

"He's on our side now," Hermione said.

Ron snorted. "That doesn't stop him being a git. The way he looks at us when he sees us here."

"Bill doesn't like him either," Ginny said.

"Is Bill here?" Harry asked. "I thought he was working in Egypt?"

"He applied for a desk job so he can be home and work for the Order," Fred explained. "He says he misses the tombs, but," he smirked, "there are compensations."

"What d'you mean?"

I rolled my eyes. "Remember Fleur Delacour? She got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeengish-"

"Bill's been giving here loads of private lessons," Fred snickered.

"Charlie's in the Order too," George said, "but he's still in Romania. Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off."

"Couldn't Percy do that?" Harry asked.

The Weasley's, the flock and Hermione all shared dark looks.

"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front Mr and Mrs Weasley," Iggy said.

"Why not?"

"Because every time his name is mentioned, Dad drops whatever he's holding and Mum starts crying," Fred said.

"It's awful," Ginny said sadly.

"I think we're well shot of him," George said.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"Percy and Dad had a fight," Fred said. "I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that before. It's normally Mum who shouts."

"It was the first week back after term ended," Ron said. "We were just about to leave to come here when Percy comes home and tells us he's been promoted."

"You're kidding?" Harry said.

"Yeah, we were all surprised," George said. "Percy got into loads of trouble about Crouch. They said Percy should of noticed that Crouch was off his rocker earlier."

"So why was he promoted?"

"That's what we wondered," Ron said. "He came home all pleased with himself, saying he'd been offered a position in Fudge's own office. Junior Assistant to the Minister or something like that."

"Dad wasn't impressed. Fudge has been going around the Ministry making sure no one's had any contact with Dumbledore," Fred said.

"Dumbledore's name is basically mud in the Ministry these days," George said. "They all think he's just making trouble saying You-Know-Who's back."

"Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone in league with Dumbledore can clear their desks," Fred said. "Fudge already suspects Dad, he knows he friendly with Dumbledore, and he's already thought Dad's a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession."

"What does any of that have to do with Percy?" Harry asked.

"I'm coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family- and Dumbleore."

Harry gave a low whistle. "Bet Percy loved that."

Ron laughed in a hollow sort of way. "He went berserk. He said- well, he said loads of really terrible stuff. Like, how he's been having to struggle against Dad's bad reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that's Dad's got no ambition and that's the reason we've always been- well, you know- not had a lot of money, I mean-"

"What?" Harry said in disbelief. Nudge made a noise like an angry cat.

"Yeah," Iggy said, "It get's worse. He called Dad an idiot for running around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him and he- Percy- knew where his loyalties lay and it was with the Ministry. He packed his bags that night and left. Said if Mum and Dad were going to be traitors to the Ministry than he was going to make sure everyone knew that he didn't belong to our family any more. I think he's living here in London now."

Harry swore under his breath.

"Mums been in a right state," Fred said dully. "You know- crying and stuff. She went to Percy's apartment and tried to talk to him but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he sees Dad at work- ignores him, I suppose."

"But Percy must be smart enough to know that Voldemort is back," Harry said. "He must know your parents wouldn't just risk everything without any proof."

"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row," Ron said. "Percy said the only evidence was your word, and Max's. Apparently, that wasn't good enough for him."

"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously," Hermione said.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

I cursed under my breath. I hoped we would avoid this.

"Haven't- haven't you been reading the Daily Prophet?"

"Yeah," Harry said.

"Have you been reading it thoroughly?"

"Not cover to cover," Harry said defensively. "If anyone was going to be in the paper about Voldemort, it would be on the front page, right?"

"You'd need to read it cover to cover to notice it," I said. "But they- um- mention us a few time a week."

"I'd have seen-"

"Not if you were only reading the front page," I said. "I'm not talking about big articles. They just slip us in, like some joke."

"What d'you-?"

"It's quite nasty, actually," Hermione said. "They're just building on all of Rita's stuff."

"But she isn't writing for them anyone, right?"

"Oh no, she kept her promise. Not that she has much choice," Hermione said with satisfaction. "But she laid the foundation for what they're writing now."

"Which is what?"

"Okay, so you know she wrote that piece about you and Max collapsing all the time, and you saying your scar hurt all the time?"

"Yeah," Harry said.

"Well, they're writing that the two of you- more you, Harry, than Max- as if you're these deluded, attention-seeking teenagers. They keep slipping in snide comments. If there's some far-fetched story, they'd say something like `A tale worthy of Harry Potter', or if there's something about a strange or weird person, they'll say `Let's hope this one doesn't have wings.' And if someone has a funny accident or anything, it's `Let's hope this one doesn't have a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him too.'"

"I don't want anyone to worship-"

"We know that, Harry," I said. "It's just what the Prophet's been saying. I stopped reading last month. Don't really see the point any more. But don't you see what they're doing? They're turning us into people that no one will believe. I bet anything that Fudge is behind it."

"Max is right, Harry," Hermione said. "They're trying to make you both seem like stupid little kids that tell ridiculous stories because they love being famous and want to keep all the attention."

"I didn't ask- I didn't want- Voldemort killed my parents! Max has wings because she grew up in a lab! Who wants to be famous that?"

"We know, Harry," Ginny said gently.

"And of course, there wasn't a word about the Dementors attacking you, or the Erasers attacking the flock," Hermione said. "Someone's told them to keep that quiet. That should have been a really big story, out-of-control Dementors, and Erasers in Britain. They haven't even reported that you broke the International Statue of Secrecy. We thought they would, it would fit in so well with this image that you are some stupid show-off. We think they're bidding their time until you're expelled- I mean, if you're expelled, obviously. You really shouldn't be, not if they abide to their own laws. There really is no case against you."

There were footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Uh oh."

Fred gave the Extendable Ears a tug; there was another loud crack and Fred and George disappeared. Seconds later, Mrs Weasley appeared in the doorway.

"The meeting's over, you can come down to dinner now. Everyone is dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"

"Crookshanks," Ginny said unblushingly. "He loves playing with them."

"Oh," Mrs Weasley said while Fang smirked at Ginny. "I thought it might have been Kreacher. He's always doing strange things like that. Now, don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go wash them before dinner, please."

Ginny grimaced at us before following her mother out of the room, Nudge, Angel and Gazzy leaving as well, leaving just me, Fang, Iggy, Ron, Hermione and Harry.

Harry looked at us for a minute, then started to look ashamed. "Look..." he muttered, but Ron shook his head and Hermione said, "We knew you'd be angry, Harry, we really don't blame you. But you've got to understand, we did try to persuade Dumbledore-"

"Yeah, I know," Harry said. "Who's Kreacher?" he asked.

"The house-elf that lives here," Iggy said. "He's a nutter. Never met one like him."

Hermione frowned at Iggy. "He's not a nutter, Iggy."

"His life ambition is to get his head chopped off and stuck up on the wall with his ancestors," Iggy said. "Is that normal?"

"Well... well if he's a bit strange, it's not his fault."

Ron rolled his eyes. "She still hasn't given up on spew," he told Harry.

"It's not spew!" Hermione said heatedly. "It's the Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare. And it isn't just me. Dumbledore think you should be nicer to Kreacher."

"Yeah, yeah," I said. "Come on. I'm starving."

We went onto the landing, and we were just about to descend the stairs-

"Hold it!" Ron said from the front, throwing his arm back to stop us walking any further. "They're still in the hall, we might be able to hear something."

The six of us looked cautiously over the banister. The gloomy hallway below was packed with witches and wizards, including all the people that went to get Harry. Everyone down there were whispering excitedly together. In the middle of the group, I saw the dark, greasy-haired head of Professor Snape.

A thin piece of flesh-coloured string descended in front of my eyes. I looked up at saw Fred and George on the landing above, lowering an Extendable Ear. A moment later though, everyone started to move towards the front door and out of sight.

"Dammit," Fred whispered and he hoisted the Extendable Ear back up again.

I heard the front door open, then close.

"Snape never actually eats here," Iggy told Harry. "Thank God. C'mon."

"Don't forget to keep your voices down in the hallway," Hermione whispered.

As we passed the row of house-elf heads on the wall, we saw Mrs Weasley, Lupin and Tonks at the front door, magically sealing it's many locks (some only put in recently in light of the flock sneaking out) and bolts behind those who left.

"We're eating down in the kitchen," Mrs Weasley whispered. "Harry, dear, if you'll just tiptoe across the hallway, it's just through that door there-"

CRASH.

"Tonks!" Mrs Weasley cried.

"I'm sorry!" Tonks wailed, who was lying flat on the floor after tripping over the troll leg umbrella stand.

"You know, I think that thing should be moved someone else where people aren't constantly falling-" I started, but the rest of my sentence was drowned out by a horrible, ear-splitting shriek.

Once again, the moth eating curtains flew open, and Harry took a step back from the portrait of my grandmother. The other portraits started waking up as well.

Lupin and Mrs Weasley darted forward and tried to close the curtains, but they wouldn't budge.

"Filth! Blood-traitors! Freaks and mutants! Mudbloods! Begone from my home! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers-"

Mrs Weasley went off to Stun the other portraits, and Sirius came bursting out from the kitchen, much like he did our first night, and started shouting at the portrait. Together, him and Lupin managed to get the curtains closed, and the shouting and screaming stopped.

"Harry," I said, "you just met my grandmother."

"Your what?"

* * *

_**Sorry for the long wait, but life has been busy. **_

_**Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Things will be starting to pick up soon enough. **_

_**As always, if you've enjoyed reading this and want cookies and butterbeer, you need to...**_

_**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**_

_**LoVe YoU!**_

_**-Rach ;)**_


	4. We Actually Learn Something

_**AUTHORS NOTE! :P **_

_**Hey everybody, hope you're all well? :)**_

_**Sorry if this took long, been busy with school and stuff. **_

_**Now, I shall answer some reviews... :)**_

_**Arkell26: Glad you enjoyed it :)**_

_**SevLoverKat: Not at all, haha!**_

_**BethZ: I've never heard of PGL, what is it? Thank you, that really does mean a lot *hugs.***_

_**BeyondOurStars: Thanks :D **_

_**Now, on with our tale!**_

_**Enjoy!**_

_**-Rach ;)**_

* * *

_**Max's POV **_

"Yup, my grandmother," I said, grinning at Harry's shocked face.

Sirius walked up the stairs from the kitchen, and from behind Harry, he said, "We've been trying to get her down for nearly two months now. We think she put a Permanent Sticking Charm on the portrait. Great to see you again, Harry."

Sirius clapped Harry on the shoulder and Harry smiled at him before asking, "But why is there a portrait of your mother doing here?"

"Didn't Max tell you yet? This was my parents' house," Sirius said as we walked into the kitchen. "I offered it to Dumbledore to use as Headquarters for the Order."

We entered the kitchen. It looked nearly the same as our first night here- the table littered with rolls of parchment, goblets, plates, and rags. The chairs were all crammed together along the table. Mr Weasley and Bill were sitting at the end of the table, their heads together, deep in conversation.

Mrs Weasley cleared her throat. Mr Weasley looked around, and when he saw Harry, he jumped to his feet.

"Harry!" Mr Weasley said, hurrying forward and shaking his hand. "Brilliant to see you again!"

Behind Harry, Bill stood up, his hair still in a tied long ponytail. He started taking up the rolls of parchment.

"Journey all right, Harry?" Bill asked, trying to pick up twelve rolls of parchment at once. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via France, did he?"

"He tried, of course," Tonks said, striding over to help Bill, and knocking over a candle on the last parchment. "Oh- sorry-"

"Here, dear," Mrs Weasley said, repairing the parchment with a wave of her wand. In the light caused by Mrs Weasley's charm, I caught a glimpse of what looked like the plan of a large building.

Mrs Weasley saw me looking. She snatched up the parchment and shoved it into Bill's arms.

"This sort of thing should be cleared away immediately after the meetings," she snapped before sweeping away to grab plates from the dresser. Bill took his wand out and muttered, "_Evanesce!" _and all the rolls of parchment disappeared.

"Sit down, everyone," Sirius said. "Harry, you've met Mundungus, haven't you?"

The thing I thought had been a pile of rags at the end of the table gave a grunting snore, then jerked awake.

"Some'n say m'name?" Mundungus mumbled sleepily. "I agree with Sirius..."

Ginny and Nudge laughed.

"The meeting's over, Dung," Sirius chuckled as we sat around the table, Harry sitting across from me, and me sitting down beside my dad. "Harry's here."

"Eh?" Mundungus opened his eyes again and peered at Harry through his dirty, matted ginger hair. "Blimey, so 'e 'as. "You all right, 'Airy?"

"Yeah," Harry said.

Mundungus continued to stare at Harry, even as he fumbled nervously in his pockets. He pulled out a grimy black pipe, and stuck it in his mouth and ignited it. Huge billowing clouds of greenish smoke obscured him in seconds.

"Owe you a 'pology," he grunted.

"For the last time, Mundungus," Mrs Weasley called, "please do not smoke that thing in the kitchen, especially when we're about to eat!"

"Ah," Mundungus said. "Right. Sorry, Molly."

The cloud of smoke vanished as soon as Mundungus put the pipe back into his pocket, but the acid smell of burning socks remained lingering in the kitchen.

"And if any of you want dinner before midnight, I'm going to need a hand," Mrs Weasley said to the room at large. "No, Harry dear, you can stay where you are. You've had a long journey."

I stood up and walked over to the cabinets. I started taking down plates and handing them to Fang to pass around.

"What can I do, Molly?" Tonks asked enthusiastically, bounding forwards.

Mrs Weasley hesitated, pausing in magically dishing out the dinner. "Er- no, dear, it's okay. You rest as well, you've had a long day too."

"No, no, I want to help!" Tonks said brightly, knocking over a chair and nearly stepping on Total ("Hey! I'm walking here!") as she hurried over to the dresser.

Soon, a series of heavy knifes were chopping meat and vegetables. I wasn't allowed near the actual food in case I caused a fire (which would probably happen), so I was in charge of drinks and cutlery.

When I finished, I sat down again beside Sirius, who was talking to Harry and Mundungus.

"Had a good summer so far?" Sirius was asking Harry as I sat down.

"No," Harry said, "It's been lousy."

I pushed down the guilt building in my stomach.

Sirius smirked, though. "Don't know what you're complaining about, myself."

"What?" Harry said incredulously.

"Personally, I'd have loved a Dementor attack. A struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony greatly. Of course, with Max and the other kids here, it's been great, but at least you've got to stretch your legs, get out and about, get in a few fights... We've all beeb stuck inside for over a month."

"Why?" Harry frowned.

"Because the Ministry is still after Sirius, and Dumbledore thinks it's too dangerous for us to be outside," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Besides, Voldemort will know at this stage that I'm an Animagus, Wormtail would have told him, so my big disguise is useless. There isn't much I can do for the Order...or so Dumbledore feels..."

"At least you've known what's been going on," Harry said.

"Oh yeah," Sirius said sarcastically, "Listening to all of Snape's reports, having to take all of his snide comments that he's out there risking his life while I'm in here on my backside having a comfortable time... asking me how the cleaning's going-"

"It's like we told you," I said, "We've been cleaning this place to actually make it a place fit for human habitation. No one's lives here in around ten years, unless you count the house-elf, and even he's gone round the twist. I doubt he's cleaned anything in years."

"Sirius," Mundungus said, who did not appear to be paying attention to the conversation, but had been paying close attention to an empty goblet. "This proper silver, mate?"

"Yeah," Sirius said, looking at it with distaste. "Finest fifteenth-century goblin-wrought silver, embossed with the Black family crest."

"That'd come orf though," Mundungus muttered, polishing it with his cuff. I rolled my eyes and made a mental note to make sure his pockets were searched before he left the house.

"Fred- George- NO, JUST CARRY THEM!" Mrs Weasley shrieked.

Harry, Sirius, Mundungus and I looked around, and within a split second, we had dived away from the table. Fred and George had bewitched a large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of Butterbeer and a heavy wooden breadboard, including a knife, to hurtle through the air towards us. The stew skidded the length of the table and came to a halt just at the end, leaving a long black burn on the surface; the flagon of Butterbeer fell with a crash, spilling it's contents everywhere; the bread knife slipped from the board and landed, point down and quivering ominously, exactly where Sirius hand had been two seconds before.

"FOR HEAVENS SAKE!" Mrs Weasley screamed. "THERE WAS REALLY NO NEED- I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS- JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY BLOODY SINGLE THING!"

"We were just trying to save a little time," Fred said, rushing forward to pull the knife out of the table. "Sorry, Sirius, mate- didn't mean to do that-"

Harry, Sirius and I were all laughing, holding onto our stomachs; Mundungus, who had toppled off his chair, was swearing as he got to his feet; Crookshanks had given an angry hiss and shot under the dresser.

"Boys," Mr Weasley said, lifting the stew back to the middle of the table, "your mother is right. You're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now that you've come of age-"

"None of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!" Mrs Weasley raged. "Bill didn't feel the need to Apparate every two feet! Charlie didn't charm everything he could! And Percy-"

She stopped dead, catching her breath with a frightened look to Mr Weasley,whose expression was suddenly wooden.

"Let's eat," I said quickly.

"Looks wonderful, Molly," Lupin said, ladling stew onto a plate for her and handing it down the table.

For a few minutes there was silence except for the clink of plates and cutlery and the scraping of chairs as everyone got comfortable at the table. Then, thankfully, Mrs Weasley turned to Sirius.

"I've been meaning to tell you Sirius, there's something trapped in that writing desk in the drawing room, it keeps rattling and shaking. Of course, it's probably just a Boggart, but I thought we should ask Alastor to have a look before we do anything with it."

"Sure, whatever you like," Sirius said, though he sounded like he couldn't care less.

"The curtains are full of Doxys too," Mrs Weasley went on. "I thought we might try and sort that out tomorrow."

"I look forward to it," Sirius said sarcastically.

Beside me, Tonks was using her Metamorphmagus powers (Tonks could change her appearance at will- isn't that awesome?) to entertain Ginny, Hermione, Nudge, Gazzy and Angel. She was transforming the shape of her nose between each bite of food. Screwing up her eyes each time with a slight pained expression, her nose swelled to a beak-like protuberance that resembled Snape's, shrank to the size of a mushroom, and then sprouted a great deal of hair from each nostril. Like every other night at dinner, we started requesting our favourite ones.

"Do the one like the pig snout Tonks!"

"No, do the duck beak! Please, Tonks!"

Tonks did both, and I snickered into my stew.

Meanwhile, Mr Weasley, Bill and Lupin were having a quite serious talk about goblins.

"They're not giving anything away yet," Bill was saying. "I can't figure out yet whether they believe he's back. Course, they probably prefer not to take side. Stay out of it."

"I'm sure they'd never go over to You-Know-Who," Mr Weasley said. "They've suffered losses as well; remember that small goblin family he killed last time, somewhere near Nottingham?"

"I think it's all going to depend on what they're offered," Lupin said. "And I'm not talking gold. If they're offered the freedom that wizards have been denying them for centuries, they're going to be tempted to go join the other side. Have you had any luck with Ragnok, Bill?"

"He's quite anti-wizard at the moment," Bill said, "he hasn't stopped raging about the whole Bagman business. He reckons the Ministry did a cover-up, those goblins never did get their gold-"

A burst of laughter from the middle of the table drowned out the rest of Bills sentence. Fred, George, Ron and Mundungus were all rolling around in their seats.

"... and then," Mundungus chocked, tears running down his face, "and then, if you'll believe it, 'e says to me, 'e says, `Ere, Dung, where didja get all them toads from? 'Cos some son of a Sludger's gone and nicked all mine!' So I says, `Nicked all your toads, Tim? What next? So I reckon you'll be wanting more then?' And if you'll believe me lads, the bloke buys all his own toads back orf me for a lot more'n what 'e paid in the first place-"

I laughed loudly as Mrs Weasley said sharply, "I don't think we need to hear any more of your business dealings, thank you very much Mundungus." Ron was slumped forward on the table, howling with laughter.

"Beg pardon, Molly," Mundungus said, wiping at his eyes. "But you know, Tim nicked 'em orf Warty Harris in the first place, so I wasn't really doing anything wrong."

"I don't know where you learned about right and wrong, Mundungus, but you seemed to have missed a few crucial lessons," Mrs Weasley said coldly.

Fred and George buried their faces into their goblets of Butterbeer; George was hiccoughing. Mrs Weasley threw Sirius a nasty look before getting to her feet and going to fetch a large apple pie for dessert. I saw Harry turning around to look at Sirius with a questioning look.

"Molly doesn't approve of Mundungus," Sirius whispered.

"Then how come he's in the Order?" Harry asked quietly.

"He's useful," Sirius said. I frowned at him. I never got this much information from my father when I ask him questions. Why is he telling Harry everything? "Knows all the crooks- well, we would, seeing as he's one himself. But he's also extremely loyal to Dumbledore, who helped him out before in some tight situations. It pays to have someone like Dung around, he manages to hear things we don't. But Molly thinks inviting him to dinner is going too far. She hasn't forgiven him for slipping off duty when he was meant to be trailing after you, Harry."

I sat back in my seat, eating my first serving of apple pie grumpily. How come everyone is so eager to tell Harry everything?

Four serving of apple pie later, and my jeans were feeling uncomfortably tight. Everyone was relaxed, and conversations started stopping one at a time. Mr Weasley was leaning back in his chair, looking relaxed and replete; Tonks was yawning widely, her nose back to normal; Ginny, who had lured Crookshanks out from under the cabinet, was sitting cross-legged on the floor, rolling Butterbeer around the floor for Crookshanks to chase.

"Nearly time for bed, I think," Mrs Weasley said with a yawn.

"Not yet, Molly," Sirius said, pushing his empty plate away and looking at Harry. "You know, you've surprised me. I would of thought that the first thing you'd be asking about was Voldemort."

The atmosphere in the room changed rapidly. My jaw dropped and I stared at Sirius. Was he going to tell Harry what was going on in the meetings?

"I did!" Harry said. "I asked everyone upstairs, but they said we're not allowed into the meetings so-"

"And quite right," Mrs Weasley said, "you're too young." She was sitting bolt upright in her chair, her fists clenched.

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order to ask questions?" Sirius asked.

"Since we've been asking you questions all summer and we haven't gotten any answers!" I snapped.

"Yeah, we've been stuck in this house for a month trying to get something out of you, and you haven't told us a single thing!" Fred said angrily.

"How come Harry get's his questions answered?" George said.

"`You're too young, you're not in the Order,'" Fred said in a high-pitched voice that sounded uncannily like his mothers. "Harry isn't even of age!"

Sirius sighed. "It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's doing," he said. "That's your parents decision."

"What about me? You're my dad, and you didn't tell me anything!" I said.

"That's because I decided not to," Sirius said calmly.

"Why?"

"Because it wouldn't have been fair to answer all of your questions while Harry was stuck in that Muggle house. I was waiting until he got here until I told you anything-"

"It is not up to you whether you tell these children anything!" Mrs Weasley said sharply. The kind expression that was usually on her face was now dangerous. "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"

"Which part?" Sirius snarled.

"The part about not telling the kids more than they need to know," Mrs Weasley said, putting heavy emphasis on the last three words.

All of us were watching Sirius and Mrs Weasley intently. Ginny was kneeling among a pile of abandoned Butterbeer corks, her mouth slightly open, her head swivelling from Sirius to Mrs Weasley as if she was watching a very interesting tennis match. Lupin's eyes were fixed onto Sirius.

"I don't intend to tell them more than they need to know, Molly," Sirius said. "But Harry and Max were the ones who saw Voldemort come back. They have more right than most-"

"But neither of them are members of the Order!" Mrs Weasley said. "Max and Harry are only fifteen-"

"And they've both dealt with as much as some in the Order" Sirius said politely, "and more than some. And not even just Max and Harry. I'm talking about the whole flock, and Ron and Hermione too."

"No one is denying what they have done!" Mrs Weasley said, her voice rising. "But they're still-"

"They aren't children, Molly!" Sirius said impatiently.

"Well, they aren't adults either!" Mrs Weasley said, the colour in her cheeks rising. "Harry isn't James, and Max is not Grace!"

"I am perfectly aware who they are, Molly," Sirius said coldly.

"I'm not sure you are, Sirius! Sometime, the way you talk about them, it's as if you think you have your best friend, and girlfriend back!"

"What's wrong with that?" Harry asked.

"What's wrong, Harry, is that you are not James, no matter how much you might look alike!" Mrs Weasley said, her eyes still boring into Sirius. "You and Max are still in school, and the adults responsible for you should remember that!"

"Are you trying to say that I am not responsible enough to care for my own daughter and godson?" Sirius said, his voice rising.

"Meaning you have been known to act rashly, Sirius, which is why Dumbledore keeps reminding you to stay home and-"

"We'll leave my instructions from Dumbledore out of this, please," Sirius said loudly.

"Arthur!" Mrs Weasley said, rounding to her husband. "Arthur, back me up here!"

Mr Weasley didn't speak up at once. He started cleaning his glasses slowly on his robes, and avoided looking at his wife. Only when he had replaced them carefully on his nose did he reply.

"Dumbledore knows the position has changed. He accepts that Harry, Max and the other kids will have to be filled in, to a certain extent, sooner or later. Especially now that Harry is staying at Headquarters, Molly."

"Yes, but there is a difference between that and inviting him to ask whatever question he likes!"

"Personally," Lupin said quietly, looking away from Sirius at last, as Mrs Weasley turned quickly to him, looking hopeful that someone might actually side with her, "I think it's better if Harry and Max get the facts- not all the facts, Molly, just a general picture- from us, rather than a garbled version from...others."

His expression was calm, but I felt sure that Lupin knew that Mrs Weasley didn't manage to throw out all of the Extendable Ears.

"Well," Mrs Weasley, breathing deeply and looking around for the support that did not come. "Well... I can see I'm going to be overruled. I'll just say this: Dumbledore obviously had a reason for not wanting Harry, or even Max, for not wanting to know too much, and speaking as someone who has Harry's, and Max's, best interests at heart-"

"They aren't your children," Sirius said quietly.

"They are as good as," Mrs Weasley said. "Who else do they have?"

"They have me!"

"Oh, yes," Mrs Weasley said, "but the problem is, it's been rather hard for you to be looking after them when you're locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it? Me and Arthur were the ones who took the flock in after Jeb was killed, while you were away in Azkaban."

Sirius started to rise out of his chair.

"Molly, you are not the only person at this table that cares for those children. Sirius, sit down," Lupin said sharply.

Mrs Weasley's lower lip was trembling. Sirius sank slowly back to his seat, his face white.

"I think Harry and Max should have a say in this," Lupin said. "They are old enough to decide for themselves."

"I want to know what's been going on," Harry said.

"Me too. But, of course, everyone else get's to stay too," I said.

"What do you mean, Max?" Mr Weasley asked.

"I mean Fang, Iggy, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Nudge and Ginny should be allowed stay too. It's only fair."

"What? No, no, the rest of you, off to bed!" Mrs Weasley said.

"Molly, you can't stop Fred and George," Mr Weasley said. "They are of age."

"They're still in school!"

"But they are legally adults now," Mr Weasley said in a tired voice.

Mrs Weasley was scarlet in the face.

"I- oh, all right then, Fred and George can stay, but Ron and-"

"Harry and Max will just tell us all everything you say, anyway!" Ron said hotly. "You will, won't you?" he added uncertainly, directing the last bit to Harry more than me.

I saw the hesitation in Harry's eyes, but after a few seconds Harry nodded. "Course I will."

Ron, Hermione, Fang and Iggy smiled.

"Fine!" Mrs Weasley shouted. "Ginny, Nudge, Angel and Gazzy- BED!"

Ginny and Nudge did not go quietly. We could hear them stomping and raging at Mrs Weasley all the way up the stairs, and when they reached the hall, Mrs Blacks ear-splitting shrieks filled the house. Lupin and Bill hurried off to the portrait. It was only after they returned, closing the door behind them and sitting down again did Sirius speak.

"Okay guys. What do you want to know?"

"Where's Voldemort?" Harry asked. "What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the Muggle news, but there hasn't been anything that sounds like him, no funny deaths or disappearances."

"That's because there haven't been any funny deaths, at least not yet," Sirius said, "not as far as we know, anyway... and we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do, anyway," Lupin said.

"Why did he stop killing people?" I asked. I knew that Voldemort had murdered more than once in the last year alone.

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself," Sirius said. "It would be too dangerous for him. He comeback didn't come off quite the way he wanted. He messed it up for himself."

"Or rather, you two messed it up for him," Lupin said with a satisfied smile.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Neither of you were meant to survive!" Sirius said. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters were supposed to know that he was back. But you two survived to bear witness."

"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return after he came back was Dumbledore," Lupin said. "And you made sure that Dumbledore knew immediately."

"How has that helped?" Hermione asked.

"Are you kidding?" Bill said incredulously. "Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was ever actually scared of!"

"Thanks to you two, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix just an hour after Voldemort came back," Sirius said.

"So what has the Order been doing?" Harry asked.

"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort doesn't carry out his plans," Lupin said.

"How do you know what his plans are?" I asked quickly.

"Dumbledore has a shrewd idea," Sirius said, "and Dumbledore's shrewd ideas normally turn out to be pretty accurate."

"And what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?" Harry said.

"I'm sure the others have already told you this," Sirius said, giving the twins a small smirk, "but firstly, we think he wants to build up his army again. In the old days, he had massive numbers at his command- witches and wizards he bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great variety of Dark creatures. You heard him planning on recruiting the giants; well, they'll be just one group he's going after. He certainly isn't going to try and take on the Ministry with just a dozen Death Eaters."

"So you're trying to stop him from getting new followers?" Fang said.

"We're doing our best," Lupin said.

"How?"

"Well, right now, the main thing is to try and convince as many people as possible that You-Know-Who really has come back, to put them on their guard," Bill said. "It isn't easy, though."

"How come?" I asked.

"Because of the Ministry's attitude," Tonks said, rolling her eyes. "You saw what Fudge was like after You-Know-Who came back. Well, he hasn't changed at all. He's refusing to believe it happened."

"But I don't get why?" Harry asked desperately. "Why is he being so stupid? If Dumbledore-"

"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," Mr Weasley said. "Dumbledore."

"Fudge is scared of him," Tonks said.

"Frightened of Dumbledore? Why?" I asked incredulously.

"He frightened of what Dumbledore's up to," Mr Weasley said. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Ministry of Magic."

"But Dumbledore doesn't want-"

"Of course he doesn't," Mr Weasley said. "He's never wanted the Minister's job even though a lot of people wanted him to take it when Millicent Bagnold retired. Fudge took the job instead, but he's never quite forgotten how much support Dumbledore had, even though Dumbledore never applied for the job."

"Fudge always knew that Dumbledore was smarter than him, and is a much more powerful wizard, and in his early days in the Ministry he was always asking DUmbledore for advice and help," Lupin said. "But it seems he's become fond of power, and a lot more confident. He loves being Minister of Magic and he has convinced himself that he is now the smart one and Dumbledore is lying to destabilise him."

"You see the problem," Sirius said. "While the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear it's hard to convince people that Voldemort is back, especially as no one wants to believe it themselves in the first place. What's more, the Ministry is leaning heavily on the Daily Prophet not to report any of what they're calling Dumbledore's rumour- mongering, so most of the community are completely unaware anything at all has happened. That makes them very easy targets for the Death Eaters if they're using the Imperius Curse."

"But you're telling as many people as you can, right?" I asked, looking around at everyone. "You're letting people know he's back?"

They all smiled humourlessly.

"Well, seeing as everyone thinks I'm a mass-murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousand Galleon price on my head, I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can I?" Sirius said restlessly.

Iggy grinned. "See, now I understand where Max got her attitude from."

Sirius smirked and Lupin rolled her eyes. "And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," he said. "It's an occupational hazard being a werewolf."

"Tonks and Arthur would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they started shouting their mouths off," Sirius said, "and it's very important for us to have spies in the Ministry, because Voldemort will definitely have them."

"We've managed to convince a few people," Mr Weasley said. "Tonks, for example- she's too young to have been in the Order last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage- Kingsley Shacklebolt's a real asset too; he's in change of the hunt for Sirius, so he's been feeding the Ministry false information that Sirius is hiding out in Tibet."

"But if no one is putting out the word that Voldemort is back-" I started.

"Who said none of us were putting the news out?" Sirius said, grinning. "Why'd you think Dumbledore is in so much trouble?"

"What trouble?" Ron asked.

"They're trying to discredit him," Lupin explained. "Didn't any of you see the Daily Prophet last week? They reported that he'd been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards because he's getting too old, losing his grip, but that's not true; he was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made a speech about Voldemort's return. They demoted him from Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot- that's the Wizard High Course- and they're talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class, too."

"But Dumbledore said he doesn't care what they do as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards," Bill said, smiling.

"It's no laughing matter," Mr Weasley said sharply. "If Albus continued defying the Ministry, he could end up in Azkaban, then where would we be? That's the last thing we want. While You-Know-Who knows that Dumbledore is out there, he is being cautious. But if Dumbledore is out of the way- well then, You-Know-Who will have a clear field."

"But if Voldemort is out there recruiting new Death Eaters, it has to come out that he's back some time?" I asked desperately.

"Voldemort isn't marching up to peoples houses and banging on the doors, Max," Lupin said. "He tricks, jinxes and blackmails people. He's well practised at working in secret."

"Besides, he has other plans as well," Sirius said. "Plans that he can put into action very quickly indeed, and he's concentrating on those plans at the moment."

"What's he after apart from followers?" Harry asked. I caught Sirius and Lupin sharing a fleeting glance before Sirius answered.

"Stuff he can only get with stealth," he said.

When we all continued to looked confused, so Sirius said, "Like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time."

"Last time he was powerful?" I asked.

"Yes."

"What kind of weapon?" I asked.

"Something worse than Avada Kedavra?" Harry said.

"That's enough!"

Mrs Weasley spoke from the shadows by the door. Her arms were crossed and she looked furious.

"I want you all in bed, now," she said, looking around at me, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fang, Iggy, Fred and George.

"You can't boss us-" Fred started.

"Watch me," Mrs Weasley snarled. She was trembling slightly as she looked at Sirius. "You've given the children plenty of information. Any more, and you might as well induct them all into the Order now!"

"Why not?" I said. "I'll join. I want to fight."

"Me too," Harry said, "I want to join. I'd join right now."

"No."

It was not Mrs Weasley who spoke up this time, but my godfather, Lupin.

"The Order is comprised only for overage wizards," he said. "Wizards who have left school," he added quickly as Fred and George opened their mouths. "There are some unbelievable dangerous involved... I think Molly is right, Sirius. We've told them enough."

Sirius only half-shrugged, but did not argue. Mrs Weasley beckoned impatiently to her children, the flock and Hermione. One by one they all stood up and left the kitchen. I shared a long look with Harry before sighing and following suit.

* * *

_**And here is the new chapter! Hope everyone enjoyed!**_

_**Sorry if it was a bit boring, but they had to learn something eventually!**_

_**Next chapter should be up soon hopefully!**_

_**You guys know the drill by now. If you want cookies and butterbeer...**_

_**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**_

_**LoVe YoU!xXx**_

_**-Rach ;)**_


End file.
